After spending 118 days in custody,former CPM MP Lakshman Seth was granted bail by the Calcutta High Court on Friday in connection with the Nandigram violence and alleged kidnapping and murder of seven villagers in 2007. Seth,has however,been debarred from entering East Midnapore district,his home district. The Division Bench headed by Justice Ashim Kumar Roy said Seth could stay any where excluding East Midnapore district and that he has to report to the local police station twice a week. He was also asked to furnish a bond of Rs 60,000. Seth was arrested by the CID on March 17 from a Mumbai guesthouse along with two others former CPM MLA Ashok Guria and CPM district committee member Amiya Sahu. The High Court,which had rejected Seths bail plea a month ago,today asked the CID whether its probe in the case has concluded. To which,public prosecutor Debasish Roy said that the agency would take a week more to wrap up the probe. The incomplete probe was cited by the Seths counsel to press for his bail. Seths counsel told the court that his client was a political leader and not a criminal. Following the filing of habeas corpus petitions by the family members of missing persons in September 2011,the High Court ordered the CID to begin fresh investigation in the case. The CID had filed a charge sheet on January 30 before the Haldia sub-divisional court naming the former MP and party heavyweight in the area,and 87 other CPM leaders of Nandigram and adjoining Khejuri blocks. According to the chargesheet,Seth,who is lodged in Haldia jail,hatched criminal conspiracy behind the violence. With PTI inputs
