Kolkata: In what has dented its image, the criminal investigation department (CID) has failed to submit its chargesheet into the rotten meat scam case within stipulated time of 90 days, which has ultimately helped most of the arrested accused including the mastermind to walk out free after getting bail from the court in the past one week.
Ahead of the panchayat elections, a massive uproar broke across the city after rotten meat was found to have been supplied to many popular restaurants, which were later raided by the civic bodies. Some of them were sealed also after meat samples were collected and sent for forensic testing.
In a police crackdown nearly 12 accused were arrested while huge quantities of rotten meat — 20 tonnes — were recovered from a warehouse in Rajarhat-New Town area. The CID was entrusted to probe the network of supplying rotten meat which was allegedly collected from the carcass in dumping grounds in the outskirts of the city.
On Wednesday, the prime accused Bishwanath Garai (52) who is a resident of Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas, Sharafat Ali and three other accused were granted bail by the additional chief judicial magistrate at the Alipore Court after their lawyer submitted to the judge that the state detective agency could not submit its chargesheet against them.
Last week, two accused Raja Mullick and Vicky Symonds who were first to be arrested by the police on April 19 after an angry mob caught them at Budge Budge, were granted bail also.
On July 19 the public prosecutor had told the court that the CID could not file the chargesheet as it was yet to receive the test report from the state forensic science laboratory (FSL).
Later, four more accused were granted bail by the court. According to a CID officer, the forensic report about the testing of the rotten meat is yet to the reach the state detective agency for which the chargesheet could not be prepared. On the other hand an FSL official argued that the seized rotten meat’s condition was so poor that it could not be tested.
