A complaint has been filed against Debasish Chakraborty, superintendent of the Presidency Correctional Home, for allowing Partha Chatterjee, former education minister, to wear rings while in judicial custody.
A senior official from the office of the additional director-general and inspector-general of the correctional services department filed the complaint on June 27 with Hastings police station holding Chakraborty responsible for alleged dereliction of duty by allowing an inmate to wear rings.
Chakraborty has been charged with negligence of duty under Section 83 of the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, 1992.
“Under the provisions of this particular act an offender can be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with a fine that may extend to Rs 1,000 or with both,” said an officer of the department.
Chatterjee was arrested last July for his alleged involvement in corruption in the school recruitment scam.
Chakraborty on his part has said that all attempts were made to remove the rings from Chatterjee’s fingers when he arrived at the correctional home in Alipore.
“At the time of his admission (Chatterjee) to Presidency Correctional Home, his fingers were swollen. He himself tried to pull out those but he could not.... We also tried to pull out those rings using soapy water but that did not work. As such no more force was applied in order to avoid any injury to him,” Chakraborty said in one of his reports.
The explanation wasn’t enough. A judge of the CBI Special Court - I had earlier asked the additional director-general of police (correctional services) to “initiate necessary action”.
