Calcutta High Court granted interim bail to Congress candidate Milan Pradhan until October 20.
KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail till Oct 20 to Congress Nandigram candidate Milan Pradhan in six cases linked to Nandigram anti-land acquisition movement of 2007. Right after it was announced that Mamata Didi will support the candidate, he was arrested.
Taking into account that Pradhan was arrested after filing his nomination on Sept 15, the court said “the petitioner may be granted an opportunity to contest” the Oct 6 Nandigram bypoll. Senior Mamata Trinamool functionary Kunal Ghosh said, “We welcome this order. This proves they are scared. Otherwise, why arrest him? If BJP has so much public support, why arrest a candidate and torture him?”
Justice Ghosh considered observations made by Supreme Court in a case involving former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal , who had sought interim bail to campaign for the 18th Lok Sabha election, and noted “that a holistic approach must be adopted” While granting the bail. Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar said, “Truth always triumphs. Debjit Sarkar, Bengal BJP spokesperson, said, “We have nothing to say on the HC order.
During the hearing, the case of Rakesh Kumar Singh, BJP assembly election candidate from Kolkata Port, was also cited. Singh was in custody when he prayed for bail to contest the elections and the high court granted him interim bail after considering a letter from the Bengal unit president of BJP, which was then in opposition. The state govt spent lakhs from taxpayers’ money to engage expensive lawyers and tried its best to block Pradhan’s bail. We welcome this verdict. We have noted that he has been asked to furnish bail bonds and report to police everyday. What is striking is that this person knew he had FIRs against him. Why did he not try to find out what happened to those FIRs? Who was shielding him all these years? What motive did they have?”