The Supreme Court on Monday rejected to overturn a Calcutta High Court ruling prohibiting police in West Bengal from pursuing coercive action against Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in criminal cases involving him, including a CID inquiry into his bodyguard’s unnatural death. However, a panel of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna requested the high court to expedite the case’s ultimate disposition. Affidavits in opposition can be filed within four weeks, according to the sole judge. West Bengal and the investigating police have not yet filed a response.
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Article 136 deals with the Supreme Court’s exceptional ability to grant special leave in cases. Senior counsel Kalyan Bandhopadhyay, representing the West Bengal government, argued that the state police should be permitted to examine the entire case subject to any conditions imposed by the court.
He stated that there is no evidence of malfeasance against Adhikari. In such circumstances, the state must also get court permission before detaining the petitioner. The outcome of the investigation will be revealed, and the proper criminal court will be able to carry out its duties. I have not lodged a complaint. When multiple people file complaints that reveal an offence, the police must decide whether to file a case or not,” he explained. He argued that if he performed his duties in accordance with the Lalita Kumari verdict and filed a complaint, how was the law broken?
“Cases must be recorded if there is a cognisable offence,” Bandhopadhyay added. The so-called death by suicide has not been investigated, according to senior counsel Anand Grover, who is representing Suparna Kanjilal Chakraborty, the widow of Adhikari’s bodyguard. According to him, Adhikari should be examined in the case, and the investigation has a lot of holes.
The CID had summoned Adhikari to testify in connection with its probe into a murder complaint filed by the guard’s widow in 2021, but the BJP MLA declined, citing ongoing high court challenges contesting FIRs against him in various instances as well as political activities. The single judge court had postponed proceedings against Adhikari in three instances involving the bodyguard’s murder, an alleged political confrontation in Nandigram, and a snatching complaint registered in the Purba Medinipur district’s Contai, Nandigram, and Panskura police stations, respectively.
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In the cases filed in Contai and Maniktala police stations, he is not a listed defendant. The bench had ordered the state government to provide details on any new FIRs filed against Adhikari, and that the state would have to get permission from the court before detaining him or taking any coercive action against him in any of these instances. The high court had ordered the BJP leader to cooperate with investigators in the two cases under investigation, while also stating that investigators will, as far as possible, accommodate him if he is required to give any statement, from a location and time convenient to him, taking into account his public responsibilities.
