Calcutta HC denies relief to Congress's Nandigram bypoll candidate in 2007 cases

Kolkata: The single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to intervene in a petition filed by Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for the forthcoming Nandigram Assembly bypoll, seeking protection in five cases registered against him in 2007.

Pradhan is already in judicial custody in two other cases following separate orders by a district court in West Bengal. In one murder case registered against him in 2007, he was remanded to judicial custody till October 3.

In another case, the same court sent him to judicial custody till October 5. The district court judge also directed the police to produce him physically before the court on September 23.

Meanwhile, Pradhan, through his counsel, approached the single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya in the High Court seeking interim protection from coercive police action, including arrest, in five cases registered against him in 2007 in connection with the land acquisition movement in Nandigram during the Left Front regime led by the late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The matter came up for hearing on Tuesday afternoon. After a brief hearing, Justice Bhattacharyya refused to intervene and observed that no direction from the High Court was necessary in the five cases.

During the hearing, Pradhan’s counsel, Ayan Bhattacharya, argued that the manner in which his client was arrested in a 19-year-old case, particularly ahead of the Nandigram bypoll, showed how the state administration was trying to destabilise the democratic process.

However, state counsel and Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar argued that Pradhan had been arrested following instructions to execute all long-standing non-bailable arrest warrants before the bypolls.

The bypolls for Nandigram, as well as the Rejinagar Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, will be held on October 6, with counting scheduled for October 9.

Pradhan was arrested on September 18 evening, hours after former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the faction of the Trinamool Congress led by her would support the Congress candidate in Nandigram.

Banerjee’s announcement came shortly after her faction’s candidate, Sanchita Dey Pradhan, withdrew her nomination from Nandigram.

The legal proceedings have unfolded against the backdrop of the upcoming bypoll, with the cases and Pradhan’s custody becoming a key issue in the contest in Nandigram now.

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