In a setback to the BJP government, two benches of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday indicated giving relief to Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for the Nandigram Assembly bypoll, who was arrested in 19-year-old criminal cases linked to the violent anti-land acquisition movement in 2007 soon after he filed the nomination papers.
While the single-judge Bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya ordered that Pradhan should not be treated as arrested in the 2007 case, in which a lower court on Wednesday sent him to judicial custody till October 7, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh said that he was ready to grant interim bail to the Congress candidate so that he could contest the October 6 bypoll.
During the hearing of an application against the arrest of Pradhan in a case filed in Khejuri, his lawyer, Senior Advocate Ayan Bhattacharya, told Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya, “In the last hearing, it was said he (Pradhan) is not required in any matter. Yesterday (Wednesday), they took Pradhan into jail custody until the 7th (October 7). They have trapped me in another matter of 2007. I was not aware of this case.”
Responding to the submission, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Rajdeep Majumdar, representing the state, argued, “The warrant was issued before. We have not hidden anything. He was arrested on the 19th (September 19). He was arrested on the basis of a warrant.”
Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya questioned the state’s failure to disclose the case during earlier proceedings.
“When the matter was taken up previously, the court was informed that in five matters he was arrested, then in five matters the cases were not alive, and in the sixth case he is not an accused. So why, after saying this in court, is he arrested in another matter? Nothing was put on record. There was no disclosure. Why was it not brought to the notice of the court?”
AAG Majumdar explained that all the cases date back to 2007 and had been reinstated following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). “These cases of 2007 the previous government had withdrawn in 2017, although these were murder cases. A PIL was filed, and in 2021 all these cases were reinstated,” the AAG said.
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While the court asked the state to produce evidence that it had served a production warrant on Pradhan, the government said it had already effected the arrest.
Senior Counsel Bhattacharya then urged the court, “He is in custody till the 7th (October 7). After polls, please pass an order not to arrest in any other case.”
Observing that there was no record to establish that the production warrant had been properly served, Justice Bhattacharyya ruled, “Concerned police officer told not to take any steps till October 12 in the Khejuri police station case, and the petitioner shall not be treated as arrested in this case.”
The High Court expressed surprise that the investigating officer moved a prayer on September 19 to show Pradhan arrested in a 2007 criminal case, and verbally instructed the state counsel to allow Pradhan to contest the upcoming election.
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Later, the West Bengal government challenged the single-bench order before a division bench of Chief Justice R V Ghuge, which will hear the matter on Friday.
Meanwhile, hearing a bail application by Pradhan in four cases in which he is incarcerated, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh expressed the view that he should be allowed to contest the election.
In an oral observation, he said,“Let Pradhan contest the by-election. I will grant him interim bail. The rest will depend on the fate of the case.”
The court asked the government to clarify its position on the matter during further hearing on the bail applications on Friday.
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State Congress president Subhankar Sarkar said,“The entire court knows what has happened. We had moved the court to seek justice… We feel that a fearful situation is being created. Pradhan was one of the leaders of land acquisition. The incumbent CM was also in it. What happened that he is in jail and the CM is enjoying the throne? Today, he has been arrested as he is a Congress candidate. He is being implicated in several other cases. The state is trying to stop the bail.”
