Rape advocate Tapas Pal got a definite respite on Thursday even as the Division Bench of Calcutta High Court on Thursday extended till Monday the stay on the single Bench order of Justice Dipankar Dutta directing the police to file an FIR against the Trinamool Congress MP from Krishangore for his hate speech and transfer the case to the CID for further investigation.
Justice Dutta while passing his 43-page order had earlier took cognisance of “apathy and indifference of the police” and observed that Paul’s speech was “outrageous and surpasses all bounds of civility”. Paul by his bizarre act has shown an evil tendency to become a law unto himself. If this tendency is not nipped in the bud, the situation would take a turn for the worse”. Wondering as to why cannons should be fired to kill mosquitoes, the Division Bench of Justices Girish Gupta and Tapabrata Chakrabarty granted a stay on the earlier order till Monday when the case would again be taken up for hearing.
Pal had in a series of public speeches on June 14 threatened the CPI(M) workers at Nakashipara in Nadia district with murder and their women with rape should they dare to touch the Trinamool workers triggering a strong outrage through out the nation. In a curious and equally bizarre incident, the police which had irked the single Bench by not taking action against Pal on Thursday got proactive arresting rather those hit by Pal’s statement. Rafiqul Islam a local CPI(M) leader who was one of the targets of Pal’s speech and whose house was smashed the day following his speech was picked by the police in what is being viewed as a result of political vendetta by the Opposition.
Trinamool MP and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee who appeared for the Government which had preferred an appeal against Justice Dutta’s order alleging he had crossed his jurisdiction said that the Court had no power to circumvent the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure wondering “whether the Court has the power under Article 226 to direct the police to proceed under the wishes of a single judge.”
Instead of coming to the High Court the petitioner should have first filed the case in a court of magistrate he said and added referring to Justice Dutta’s caustic remarks against the police that “court cannot destroy confidence of any public servant unless his lack of worth is proved.” The Government lawyer contended that Pal’s speech did not constitute a cognizable offence. “It will not become a cognizable offence if a person uses threat of rape ‘if any one comes and touches my mothers and sisters’.”