A special court took cognisance of the chargesheets in the Rizwanur Rahman case and issued summons against the seven accused after making CBI officials sweat over documentation for eight hours on Monday.

“The accused will have to appear in court on October 27, when the trial commences,” Anupam Maity, the metropolitan magistrate of the17th court, said at the end of an eventful day at Bankshal court.

Rizwanur’s father-in-law Ashok Todi, one of the accused, added to the drama by moving the Supreme Court against the high court’s directive to the CBI last week to file chargesheets against him, his brother Pradip and relative Anil Saraogi.

The appeal will come up for hearing in the apex court in a day or two, the Todis’ counsel said.

The other four accused are former detective department chief Ajoy Kumar, former assistant commissioner Sukanti Chakraborty, sub-inspector Krishnendu Das and Rizwanur’s family friend Pappu.

It was 9.05pm by the time proceedings drew to a close at Bankshal, prompting some lawyers to call it the longest day in recent years for the court. It was also the day after Rizwanur’s first death anniversary.

The drama had begun around 12.45pm, with CBI counsel Partha Tapaswi walking into chief metropolitan magistrate S.S. Anand’s chamber. Anand turned up for the hearing around 2.10pm and immediately raised questions about the case file.

“Where is the copy of the FIR (against the accused)? How can you ask for submission of chargesheets without submitting the FIR?” he asked Tapaswi.

Rizwanur Rahman

It took CBI officials two hours to procure a facsimile of the FIR with the administrative office’s stamp on it. The CBI’s legal team then started drawing up a document stating that a copy of the FIR was received by the court on November 17 last year.

That was around 4.35pm.

Ten minutes later, even before the submission could be made, the chief metropolitan magistrate left the court to take a call. He returned around 5.35pm and passed an order 25 minutes later, asking the CBI to submit the chargesheets at the designated court. By then, news had arrived that the magistrate for the 14th court was absent and that his counterpart in the 17th court was standing in. Everyone hurried to the 17th court and the hearing began around 10 minutes later.

After an hour of arguments, Maity left for his chamber, just like Anand had done earlier in the day. The packed courtroom gradually emptied out as everyone else poured into the corridor. The watch then showed 8.10pm.

It wasn’t until nearly another hour had elapsed that Tapaswi and other CBI officers were called into the magistrate’s chamber for the official announcement of the court taking cognisance of the spiral-bound chargesheets in blue.

The CBI team had also carried with them an aluminium box containing all documents pertaining to the case.

“This marks the real beginning of the process of getting justice in our battle against the people responsible for my brother’s death,” Rizwanur’s brother Rukbanur said.

The seven accused will be tried under sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 503 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Although they can be put behind bars, even if for a day, sources in the CBI said the agency would not be pressing for their arrest.