Kolkata: A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday put an interim stay on further police action against HC counsel and Congress leader Kaustav Bagchi, who was arrested on March 4 for allegedly making derogatory comments against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
After a lower court in Kolkata granted bail to Bagchi on the same day, he challenged the procedure of his arrest at Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha.
On Wednesday, Justice Mantha put an interim stay on further police action against Bagchi for the next four week when the matter will be heard again.
Justice Mantha also questioned the procedure of his arrest after the cops of Burtolla Police under Kolkata Police visited his residence during early hours and questioned him for hours before finally arresting him.
The bench also directed the Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal to seek a report from Burtolla Police station and submit the report to the Calcutta High Court within that four weeks of time.
To recall, after the bypoll results for the Sagardighi Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district was announced on March 2, in which Left-backed Congress candidate Baryon Biswas trounced Trinamool Congress nominee Debasish Bandopadhyay by 23,000 votes, the chief minister had launched a scathing attack against state Congress President and veteran party MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, referring to his daughter’s suicide in 2006.
On March 3, Bagchi held a press conference where he referred to a book written by former IAS officer Deepak Kumar Ghosh, which reportedly has some references about the personal life of the Chief Minister.
Bagchi said that since Banerjee has started making personal attacks by referring to the suicide of Chowdhury’s daughter, he would now counter them by circulating soft copies of Ghosh’s book through WhatsApp. That followed the police raid at his residence and his arrest.
The arrest evoked strong criticism from all corners, including from within the Trinamool Congress.
–IANS
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