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KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Friday quashed 15 police cases filed against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari and ordered a joint probe by West Bengal police and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in four similar cases, senior advocate Billwadal Bhattacharyya said.
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In these cases, Adhikari faces charges ranging from violating prohibitory orders to making insulting remarks, Bhattacharyya, who appeared for Adhikari, told reporters.
The order was passed by a bench of justice Jay Sengupta after the state government told the high court that it had not been able to start investigation in these cases because the high court’s justice Rajasekhar Mantha stayed police proceedings in all cases filed against Adhikari till December 2022.
At the time, the high court had also barred the police from filing more first information reports (FIRs) against the BJP leader without the court’s permission.
Bhattacharyya told reporters that justice Sengupta “withdrew the legal shield granted to the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. However, the court quashed 15 cases and ordered the formation of an SIT in four cases.”
Senior advocate and Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Kalyan Banerjee who appeared for the state police, said the police were free to register police complaints received against Adhikari since 2022.
“Law will take its own course now. There are several cases in which the police could not register FIRs against Adhikari in three years. Police face no legal hurdle after Friday’s order,” said Banerjee.
Both the TMC and the BJP interpreted the order as a victory for them.
Adhikari claimed the police were under orders from the TMC leadership to file FIRs against him.
“I am very happy with the order. The quashing of 15 cases proves that the state police is TMC’s political toy. The court said I can move the bench again if required. I will teach (chief minister) Mamata Banerjee a lesson in the coming assembly election,” Adhikari said.
BJP state unit president Samik Bhattacharya said Adhikari became the TMC’s prime target after he quit the ruling party in 2020 and joined the BJP.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the bar on registering new cases against Adhikari that existed till Friday was “unprecedented.”
“How can a court grant such immunity to any citizen? Law will catch up with him now,” said Ghosh.
Justice Mantha passed the 2022 order on Adhikari’s petition that FIRs were being filed against him on frivolous charges to harass him and asked the bench to quash the cases and transfer them to the CBI.
The state government had approached the Supreme Court to challenge justice Mantha’s verdict, but a bench comprising the then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and justice PS Narasimha told the Bengal government to go back to the high court to seek modification of the order. The ruling on Friday came in this case.
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