HC relief for Congress Nandigram candidate
In a major respite to the Congress candidate from Nandigram, Milan Pradhan, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the Bengal Police not to create impediments for him before the Assembly by-elections. The Court’s order would amount to granting bail to Pradhan, lawyers said.
Pradhan was arrested earlier in a number of cases, 15 years old, on grounds that he had not obtained bail against those charges. The lower court had awarded him judicial custody till October 7. Elections to two Assembly seats, Nandigram and Rejinagar, are to be held on October 6.
The Court of Justice Saugato Bhattacharya directed the police not to take strong steps against him till October 12 in connection with case number 45 of 2007.
The Court also pointed out discrepancies, asking why the prosecution had produced no document showing that a production warrant had been served on the accused in 11 other cases.
As a countermeasure to the single Bench’s order, the State immediately preferred an appeal before the Division Bench, where the Judge also asked the petitioners to let the accused contest the elections. The order, however, was reserved for Friday.
Pradhan was facing charges of murder, attempt to murder, abduction with intent to murder, disappearance of evidence, house trespass, rioting with arms and offences under the Arms Act. He was arrested on September 18.
Meanwhile, in a parallel development, the Mamata Banerjee faction of the Trinamool Congress on Thursday demanded a thorough investigation into the “vote theft” charges against the Election Commission of India.
Senior party leader Kunal Ghosh said that “the Mamata TMC’s demands are very clear. First, we want a thorough investigation conducted by sitting Supreme Court judges; second, we want the removal of Gyanesh Kumar; third, we want restoration of all the scrapped names that were deleted under the SIR scheme; and fourth, we want re-election in all the States where the polls took place after Gyanesh Kumar assumed office.”
