There was much ado about a lost mobile in West Bengal. Not surprising, considering it belonged to the daughter of a judge
By India Legal Team
Judges have a lot of power vested in their office and their pronouncements and desires cannot be ignored, especially when it comes to their family members. And even if it is a mere matter of a lost mobile phone.
On January 8, 2015, the district and sessions judge of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri and the district magistrate and superintendent of police of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar received a fax from S Chanda, joint registrar (protocol) of Calcutta High Court regarding the lost mobile of Debjani Sengupta, the daughter of Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta, chief justice of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court.
The fax brought to the notice of authorities that Debjani had lost her mobile in Jaldapara forest and thus they were asked to keep in touch with her through the mobile numbers of two of her friends.
This fax mentioned an earlier fax on January 6, 2015, regarding Debjani’s visit to Jaldapara and Kalimpong on a college excursion along with 34 students and teachers. The present fax brought to the notice of these three authorities that Debjani had lost her mobile in Jaldapara forest and therefore, they were asked to keep in touch with her through the mobile numbers of two of her friends: Alizabeth (number given) and Anjali (number given).
A copy of the fax
They were further told to communicate these numbers to the local police stations so that they could contact her as and when required. Further, they were directed to tell concerned authorities to search for Debjani’s mobile at the earliest and to treat this matter as urgent.
And in what is a clinching audio evidence for India Legal, Chanda spoke to its editor-in-chief, Inderjit Bhadwar, and admitted that the police was, indeed, looking for Debjani’s mobile. Chanda said: “We have already infor-med through a fax message, the superintendent of police and local police station…we have guided the girls….We have already sent the EMI number, they are searching…we are blocking the mobile set….” When Bhadwar asked him: “Who is taking care of the girls?”, Chanda replied: “Local police station.” Asked if they were under “proper VIP security”, the joint registrar replied: “Yes, proper VIP security, no problem.”
While it is common for citizens to file FIRs on losing mobiles, what has raised eyebrows in this case is that instructions were passed to three senior government officials to get involved in this issue because the person concerned was a judge’s daughter. But who can ignore diktats of this sort?