SC allows Gaurav Dutt's wife to withdraw plea

Representational image

The Supreme Court allowed wife of former senior police officer Gaurav Dutt, Sreyashi Dutt to withdraw her plea for an independent inquiry in the death of her husband. Gaurav Dutt allegedly committed suicide and blamed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the suicide note.

A Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose said that the request for withdrawal of the writ petition should be allowed.

"Petitioner (Sreyashi Dutt) appeared in person in pursuant to the order dated May 9, 2019. One of us (Justice Aniruddha Bose) has interacted with the petitioner and we are satisfied that the request for withdrawal of the writ petition should be allowed. We order accordingly," the bench said in its order.

The Bench had earlier said that it wants to interact with Sreyashi to ascertain why she wants to withdraw her plea.

Sreyashi said that she wanted to withdraw her petition because she was not in a proper mental condition when she agreed to file the case.

The Bench also directed the state government to pay Rs 25000 to Sreyashi for the expenses which she has incurred in attending the court proceedings.

A 1986-batch IPS officer, Gaurav Dutt was reportedly found with a slit wrist at his home on February 19. Dutt had taken voluntary retirement last year.

(with inputs from ANI)

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates

Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from Agencies