Case will now be sent to Chief Justice for appointment of a third judge
In a rare development in the history of Calcutta High Court, a Division Bench hearing an appeal petition on Tapas Pal case gave a fractured decision with one judge rejecting the earlier single-bench order directing the CID to slap an FIR against the Trinamool MP and conduct an investigation under court supervision and the other judge upholding the earlier decision.
The case will now be sent to the Chief Justice for appointing a third judge whose decision would be final in the case. Till then the Division Bench order putting a stay on the single bench direction would continue and no FIR would be filed against Pal for at least another three weeks.
Pal a renowned Bangla actor and a two-time lok Sabha Member from Krishnagore was in caught in camera threatening CPI(M) workers in a series of public speeches with rape and murder. The speeches made in June this year kicked up a nation-wide storm even as a petitioner from his constituency filed a PIl in the High Court seeking his arrest.
Hearing the case the Single Judge Bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta not only pulled up the police but also directed the CID to take over the case and slap an FIR against the erring MP before investigating it under court supervision.
Curiously the Government that normally seeks prosecution of a defendant in a criminal case filed an appeal against Justice Dutta’s order before the Division Bench of Justices Girish Gupta and Tapabrata Chakrabarty.
While Justice Gupta set aside the Single Bench decision wondering as to where there was a need of a CID investigation and stating that the police were enough to conduct the probe independently Justice Chakrabarty upheld the order of Justice Dutta who had literally chastised the State police for sitting idle without taking any action in the case.
“While Justice Gupta has upheld the Government’s appeal while Justice Chakrabarty has dismissed that appeal” Kalyan Banerjee senior counsel and Trinamool MP who stood for Pal said.
The taped speech of the actor-turned MP showed how he threatened the opposition workers in a public gathering saying “if our people are attacked then I will wreck havoc in the area. I will send my boys to their houses and get their women raped and houses torched.” In another speech he asked his party men to “keep your guns and axes ready in your houses. Whenever the CPI(M) comes cut their heads into pieces.”