Kolkata: West Bengal government today told the Calcutta High Court that all officers of CBI could not be termed impartial and independent while opposing a plea for an investigation by the central agency into the death of Rizwanur Rehman who married the daughter of a Hindu industrialist.

Advocate General Balai Roy submitted before Justice Soumitra Pal that the officers could have a mind of their own and it could not be guaranteed that they would act impartially always.

On the question of independent probe, Roy said CBI officials were paid by the Centre just as the state police officers were paid from the state coffers and as such they had to go by the policies and directives of the respective governments.

He said CBI had no officer of its own cadre. All its officers were recruited from the state cadre and it would not be right to say an officer was partial when he was serving the state police and became impartial when he went to CBI. Roy claimed the conviction rate by the state investigating agency was higher than that of CBI.

Supporting West Bengal government's decision to hand over the investigation to CID, the Advocate General said the investigative agency was under the director general of state police and Kolkata Police had nothing to do with it.

He said the Kolkata Police, a commissionerate, neither shared administrative jurisdiction nor operational jurisdiction with the state police. The hearing in the prayer for a CBI probe into Rizwanur's death following his marriage to Priyanka Todi, daughter of businessman Ashok Todi, would continue on Thursday.