Hopes of the Central Bureau of Investigation report regarding the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rehman becoming public on Friday did not fructify as the Calcutta high court adjourned the matter for five weeks following the failure of main accused Ashok Todi and two IPS officers to file affidavits stating their position in the case.
The lawyers of IPS officers Ajoy Kumar and Gyanwant Singh, who were alleged to have intimidated Rizwanur into sending his wife Priyanka to her father Ashok Todi, pleaded before Justice Dipankar Dutta that the report be circulated immediately and they be given more time to file affidavits, which had been directed in October 2007.
Todi's lawyer Joymalyo Bagchi also made a similar request. On earlier hearings in the case, they had asked for time to file the affidavits.
However, the counsel for the Rizwanur's elder brother Ruqbanur, maintained that the CBI report be circulated only after the affidavits were filed, claiming that these could be influenced by the contents of the report.
CBI counsel Ranjan Roy asked that the report be circulated only after the final hearing in the case was completed.
Hearing all the parties, Justice Dutta directed Ruqbanur's counsel and also the CBI lawyer to file affidavits stating their opposition within three weeks of the plea for immediate circulation of the report.
The court gave two weeks to the police officers and Todi to file their affidavits in reply to the opposition.
After examining the affidavits, the court would decide on the question of circulating the CBI report when the matter comes up for further hearing on February 20. The CBI had submitted its report before the court on January 8.
Rizwanur had married Priyanka Todi, daughter of wealthy businessman Ashok Todi, under the Special Marriage Act on August 18 and began living with her at his residence from August 21.
It was alleged that Rizwanur and Priyanka were summoned to the Kolkata Police headquarters thrice at the behest of Todi and his relatives and Priyanka returned to her father's home on the third occasion on September 8 following a written assurance by her uncle that she could return to her in-laws after a week.
But she never returned. The body of Rizwanur, a computer graphics teacher, was found lying beside rail tracks on September 21, a month after his marriage to Priyanka Todi.
The issue had snowballed into a public outcry and resulted in the shunting out of the then Kolkata Police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, deputy commissioner Gyanwant Singh, DCP Ajoy Kumar and two other officers from the detective department.
Interestingly, Priyanka has mentioned in a written statement that Ruqbanur had tried to force Rizwanur to sign divorce papers on the night of September 19.
Her statement, however, was silent on the role of senior the Kolkata Police officers who had allegedly threatened Rizwanur and which was being investigated by the CBI.