Shankar Thakur @ Bhuttu Thakur v. The State Of West Bengal And ANR

CIRCUIT BENCH OF CALCUTTA HIGH COURT AT JALPAIGURI 16.08.2023 Court No.1 (D/L 01) (AK) CRM (DB) 357 OF 2023 In Re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 filed on 26.06.2023 in connection with Alipurduar Women Police Station Case No. 18 of 2023 dated 15.03.2023 under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, 2012 read with Sections 376(2)(n)/328/506 of the IPC.

And In the matter of: Shankar Thakur @ Bhuttu Thakur ... Petitioner.

Mr. Sandip Guha Roy ... for the petitioner.

Mr. Aditi Shankar Chakraborty Mr. Ujjwal Luksom Ms. Namrata Das ...for the State.

The court is informed that the I.O., Alipurduar, Women Police Station is on maternity leave. The representative of the IO being the Officer-in-Charge is present in court. The court is informed that the DNA samples of the victim girl, the baby and the accused person have been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata on 7th August, 2023. The Public Prosecutor-in-charge informs the court that 5-6 months are normally required for preparing the report. Since the petitioner has already spent 150 days in prison, we deem it appropriate to direct the CFSL to expedite the preparation of

the report and sent the reports to the Investigating Authority within three months from date.

We are also informed that 20th August, 2023 has been fixed for framing of charges.

We request the learned special POCSO court, Alipurduar to make an effort to complete the trial as expeditiously as possible and preferably within eight months from today.

CRM(DB) 357 of 2023 is accordingly rejected and disposed of in terms of the above.

(PRASENJIT BISWAS, J.) (MOUSHUMI BHATTACHARYA, J.)