Parts of the judiciary seem to have finally woken up to the breakdown of law & order which has plagued West Bengal for a while now, and the way the situation deteriorated into utter lawlessness after election results were announced on May 2 and a state-wide pogrom was unleashed on Hindus who supported BJP.

The Calcutta HC has recognized the witch-hunt launched by the TMC govt. against BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. Adhikari was one of Mamata’s most trusted aides and face of the Nandigram movement in Bengal that catapulted TMC to power in the state 10 years ago, before he joined BJP in December last year. He later defeated Mamata in the Nandigram seat, a battle that Mamata had staked her reputation on.

As per a report by legal site Bar & Bench –

“The West Bengal government is attempting to implicate and victimize BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari by filing criminal cases, the Calcutta High Court observed on Monday while granting protection from arrest to Adhikari in two cases registered against him.

Single-judge Justice Rajasekhar Mantha also stayed the investigation against him in four other cases.

“Prima facie there appears to be an attempt at implicating and victimizing him in criminal cases and mala fides, malice and collateral purpose in registering the FIRs against the petitioner (Adhikari) and his associates. A scheme and or conspiracy and or pattern and or stratagem appear to have been devised to entrap the petitioner and his associates to ensure their incarceration and custody inter alia to embarrass them,” the Court said.

The Court further observed that there is prima facie evidence of abuse and or misuse of State and police machinery in registering cases for investigation based on half-truths, fiction, concoctions and non-events.

Adhikari had approached the High Court alleging that the Mamata Banerjee led West Bengal government was abusing police machinery by registering 6 FIRs against him in 4 different police stations. He sought Court’s intervention in the FIRs or in the alternative to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He submitted that victimisation and harassment by the State had begun immediately after he changed political allegiance in December 2020 and joined BJP.”

In one case, Suvendu Adhikari has been charged with ‘theft of tarpaulin sheets’ when two days prior to the registration of FIR, the chairman of the Municipality had complained to the police that there was “an attempt to steal” the said tarpaulins. Similarly, a case of suicide closed in the year 2018 and publicly announced as such by the Police, was registered as a murder case against the petitioner 3 years after the closure.

The Court also asked Adhikari to continue co-operating with the ongoing probe.

(Featured image source: Bar & Bench)

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