Calcutta HC Gives Abhishek Interim Relief But Bars His Foreign Trip
The TMC MP was asked to help police in probe
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday provided Trinamul Congress scion Abhishek Banerjee an interim cover from coercive steps including arrest till July 31 but stopped him from leaving the country without permission and directed him to co-operate with police, if summoned for questioning, in a case of allegedly provoking post-poll violence in West Bengal with his inflammatory speech.
While passing the order, Justice Saugata Bhattacharya of the HC also rejected the Diamond Harbour MP’s plea of quashing the FIR lodged against him for commenting at an Assembly Election campaign rally: “Kon Jallader Koto Khomota Aar Kon Dillir Baba Kake Banchate Ase, Ami Char Tarikh Dekhbo (I will see which executioner have what kind of guts and which big daddy of Delhi comes to save whom on May 4)”.
Justice Bhattacharya further called Mr Banerjee's provocative statements, apparently targeting union home minister Amit Shah, “irresponsible”. He wondered how the TMC national general secretary could make those remarks as a parliamentarian. Referring to “a very black history so far as this state is concerned on deaths in post poll violence”, the judge then observed, “What could have happened if TMC was on the winning side?”
Mr Banerjee, who has been in the eye of a storm within TMC for its ouster from power, had moved the HC for relief on May 18 after he was booked in an FIR at the cyber crime police station of the Bidhannagar City Police on May 15 following a complaint by a social activist, Rajiv Sarkar, at Baguihati police station in North 24 Parganas on May 5 against his inciting speech.
In the FIR, the TMC national general secretary faces sections 196 (promotion of enmity, hatred), 351 (criminal intimidation), 353(1)(c) (circulation of false information, rumors to incite hatred) and other charges of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and sections 123(2) and 125 of the the Representation of the People Act. Section 196 of the BNS is a non-bailable offence with a punishment of three years’ jail and a fine. Meanwhile, Kasba TMC MLA Javed Ahmed Khan surrendered at the Alipore Court during the day and obtained bail in a case of post-poll unrest at Tiljala.
