‘Won’t hand over case to WB’
KOLKATA: A fresh row over the 2004 theft of Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Prize medallion started on Wednesday, with the CBI refusing to hand over the case to the West Bengal government.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which controls the CBI, communicated to the state home department that the probe agency has refused to hand over the case. State government officials told HT that DoPT has also informed the government that the CBI will not part with the documents related to the investigation.
“Rather, the CBI has proposed that if state investigation agencies come across any new clue linked to the theft, they should inform the central agency,” said a state government official. State education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general, Partha Chatterjee, said, "This proves that the Union government is not really serious about recovering the stolen medallion.
Whatever be the CBI’s reply, the state government will go ahead with its own investigation.” The state home department wrote a letter to DoPT for the first time in December 2015, requesting custody of the CBI documents and seeking charge of the investigation.