New Delhi: The Calcutta high court on Thursday, August 19, ordered a court-monitored CBI investigation into the cases of murder and rape that took place in the immediate aftermath of the Bengal assembly election.The high court’s order is in line with what a panel of the National Human Rights Commission had called for after their fact-finding trip to the state.The committee, which was formed by NHRC chairman and former Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra on a direction by a five- judge bench of the Calcutta high court, placed its report before the court on June 13.On August 19, five-judge bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal also ordered the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe all other offences related to post-poll violence in the state.The SIT will comprise IPS officers Director General (Telecommunications) Suman Bala Sahoo, Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar.The bench said that both investigations will be monitored by the court.It directed the central agency to file a report on its investigation in the next six weeks.Also read: The Bengal Violence May Not Be One-Sided or ‘New’ But Mamata Has a Duty to Stop ItSeveral public interest litigations filed before the high court had pleaded for investigation into violence, citing that hundreds had been subjected to assault, made to flee their houses, and that property was destroyed in the days following the announcement of results of the Bengal polls.The bench – also comprising Justices I.P. Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar – ordered the Bengal government to process compensation for victims, Indian Express has reported.The court turned down the Mamata Banerjee government’s allegation that the investigation conducted by the NHRC was biased.On July 15, West Bengal chief minister Banerjee accused the NHRC of “disrespecting the court” and pursuing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s line of “political vendetta” by leaking its report to the media.The Wire‘s coverage of the post-poll violence found that the assaults had affected people of the state disproportionately, wreaking most havoc on the lowest rung of BJP workers and women across almost the whole state. At the same time, communal incitement had added fuel to the fire, triggering rampant spread of news which later emerged to be fake, thus taking attention from instances of real violence.(With PTI inputs)