Kolkata, Jan 12 (IANS): Over 72 hours have passed since slanderous posters slamming Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the Calcutta High Court were found in front of the latter's residence at Jodhpur Park in South Kolkata, the police are yet to trace the masterminds behind the mischief.

Already two FIRs have been filed on this count, first at the Lake Police Station and the second at Hare Street Police Station.

CCTV footage from the local areas have also been procured by the sleuths of Kolkata Police, which clearly shows two masked men pasting those posters on the wall of Justice Mantha's residence as well as the adjacent places.

Although city police sources have claimed that their sleuths are trying to track these miscreants from the clues in the CCTV footage recovered, questions are automatically raised on why the police are taking so long in pinpointing and arresting them.

The opposition leaders in the state have alleged that the delay is deliberate on part of the police since the actual masterminds behind this slanderous postering are the ruling Trinamool Congress leaders. Even the retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officers like the former additional director general of West Bengal Police, Nazrul Islam have questioned the efficiency of the existing forces and intelligence in the matter.

On early morning of December 9, these posters slamming Justice Mantha were seen pasted on the walls of the latter's residence and adjacent places at Jodhpur Park in South Kolkata. In the posters, it was alleged that Justice Mantha was acting in a biased manner in favour of Suvendu Adhikari.

In the posters Justice Mantha was also slammed for his recent verdict removing the shield of cohesive action by Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Maneka Gambhir, the sister-in-law of Trinamool Congress's national general secretary and party MP, Abhishek Banerjee. The local security personnel said that some people might have pasted these posters late Sunday night.

From the same day a group of lawyers of the Calcutta High Court, known to be close to Trinamool Congress started boycotting Justice Mantha's bench, while some of them even blocked their colleagues from entering his court.

The matter was finally settled on Wednesday, after Justice Mantha, on Tuesday issued a rule of contempt of court and also filed a suo motu petition in the matter.