Calcutta HC Shields Bengal Opposition Leader Amid Legal Battle

The interim protection was granted to the Leader of the Opposition by the single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta till November 18.

Justice Sengupta also directed the police to submit the case diaries relating to the FIRs to the court by the next date of hearing in the matter, which has been fixed on November 11.

Justice Sengupta also directed that notices be served to the complainants in the two cases, based on whose complaints the FIRs were registered.

Both the FIRs were in relation to some controversial comments allegedly made by the Leader of the Opposition about the West Bengal Forest Department Minister, Birbaha Hansda.

Last week, the same single-judge bench of Justice Sengupta withdrew the protection enjoyed by LoP Adhikari from future FIRs against him by the police without the prior permission of the court, which was granted in December 2022 by the Calcutta High Court's erstwhile single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha.

While withdrawing that protection, Justice Sengupta observed that the protection granted to LoP Adhikari in 2022 was an interim arrangement and hence, it could not be continued for an indefinite period.

However, on the same day, Justice Sengupta dismissed a total of 15 FIRs that were already registered against LoP Adhikari before he was granted protection against future FIRs without court permission.

In cases of the remaining existing FIRs, Justice Sengupta's bench ordered that it would be investigated by a joint Special Investigation Team (SIT), with representation from both West Bengal Police and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

- IANS