Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday raised the question whether so many FIRs have been filed against the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, just because the latter shifted from the ruling Trinamool Congress to the BJP.
The single- judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta raised the question while hearing a petition filed by Adhikari seeking protection from coercive action against him in as many as 27 FIRs filed against him by the state police since the time he became the LoP after the 2021 Assembly polls.
“Do you want to say that his association with criminal activities started only after he changed the political party?” Justice Sengupta questioned.
In reply, the state government counsel and Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Kalyan Bandopadhyay said that it is quite possible that Adhikari was disciplined before and he got associated with criminal activities only after joining BJP.
“There is no guarantee that someone without any past criminal records will not get criminal activities in future,” Bandopadhyay argued.
In reply, Justice Sengupta said that it is also quite possible that the ruling party guarded Adhikari when he was associated with them.
“That’s is why there was only one FIR against him was registered when he was with Trinamool Congress and just within two years after he joined BJP as many as 27 FIRs were lodged against him. This can also go against the ruling party,” Justice Sengupta observed.
The next hearing in the matter is scheduled on September 13.
Before the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, Adhikari resigned simultaneously from his chairs as the state transport minister, member of state assembly and also from the primary member of Trinamool Congress and joined BJP in presence of the Union home minister Amit Shah.
He contested the 2021 state assembly polls from Nandigram constituency in East Midnapore district defeating the Trinamool Congress candidate and the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Later, Mamata Banerjee got elected in the by-elections from Bhabanipur assembly constituency in Kolkata and retained her chair as the Chief Minister.
–IANS
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