The Supreme Court on Monday transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) 12 FIRs lodged by the West Bengal Police in connection with illegal confinement of judicial officers involved in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Malda district last week in the poll-bound state.A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi lamented that the bureaucracy’s credibility was being lowered and politics was being injected into the West Bengal Secretariat and government offices.Invoking its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, it directed the NIA to take over the investigation into all these incidents which were otherwise beyond the mandate of the NIA.The Bench directed the state police to forthwith hand over all these cases, the documents and evidence collected and the custody of the accused to the NIA, which could register further FIRs if needed.On the orders of the top court, the Election Commission had on April 2 asked the NIA to probe the illegal confinement of seven judicial officers, including three women, involved in the SIR exercise in West Bengal inside the BDO office in Kaliachak area of Malda district on April 1 by an unruly mob for several hours.On Monday, the Bench pulled up state Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala, Director General of Police Siddh Nath Gupta and the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Malda–who virtually appeared before it following an April 2 order–for the lapses on their part during the incident that had forced the CJI to intervene to defuse the situation. The CJI was monitoring everything till 2 am on April 2.“The district magistrate and civil administration officials were only watching. They said what can be done, there are hundreds of women on the spot. How are hundreds of people allowed to gather at that spot? Had it not been for the efforts of the Chief Justice of India, some unfortunate incident would have taken place,” Justice Bagchi said.“It’s sheer failure of the administration of West Bengal. What kind of credibility do the senior officers of the West Bengal bureaucracy have? It’s being lowered. Politics is being brought into the state secretariat and government offices,” the Bench said.“What is the problem? You don’t even entertain the call of the Chief Justice (of Calcutta High Court),” the Bench asked the Chief Secretary, who said that no call had been made from Calcutta to his phone. “I had travelled to Delhi for a meeting and I was on a flight between 2 pm and 4 pm at the relevant time that day,” the Chief Secretary submitted.As the Bench pointed out that the calls were probably made during the evening after he had deboarded the flight, the Chief Secretary said the number he used was more secure and had better connectivity.“Security so high that even the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court cannot access? So please lower yourself a bit so ordinary minions like the Chief Justice of the High Court can access you,” said the Bench, which was apparently not convinced by the explanations offered.However, the top court dropped action against West Bengal officials over the violence in Malda where seven judicial officers involved in SIR exercise were held hostage by anti-social elements last week.The Bench asked them to apologise to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice for lapses on their part. “Lower yourself a little bit so that the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice can reach you. Give your apology to him,” the Bench told the top bureaucrats.On behalf of the Chief Secretary and the DGP, senior counsel Siddharth Luthra told the Bench that 24 persons had been arrested. He said kingpins of the April 1 incident, Mofakerrul Islam and Maulana Muhammad Shahjahan Ali Qadri, had already been in the custody of the local police.The Bench directed the NIA to interrogate the kingpins, saying it appeared to be a well-planned incident. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said on behalf of the NIA that four FIRs were registered by the local police in connection with the incident involving judicial officers while eight others related to blockades in nearby areas. Call detail records of 432 persons allegedly involved in the incident were examined.The top court asked NIA officer Sonia Singh to file further status reports related to the investigation in the case and inform the court of any impediments faced. Posting the matter for further hearing on April 13, the Bench indicated that it would monitor the investigation into the matter.