The Calcutta High Court heard a petition from Milan Pradhan, Congress' Nandigram bye-election candidate, regarding his arrest in a sixth criminal case dating back to 2007. The court directed the police not to take any coercive action against Pradhan in connection with this case until October 12.
During a hearing on Thursday, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya of the Calcutta High Court expressed surprise at the repeated arrests of Milan Pradhan, Congress' Nandigram bye-election candidate, in criminal cases dating back to 2007. This is the sixth case in which Pradhan has been arrested.
On September 18, Pradhan was arrested in connection with a 2007 murder case. He was subsequently shown to be arrested in four other cases and is currently in judicial custody.
Pradhan's counsel alleged that a trial court had remanded him to judicial custody till October 7, a day after the bye-poll, in another case despite the court's order on Tuesday. However, the state argued that Pradhan had been arrested in the case on Saturday, before the High Court heard the matter on Tuesday.
The court directed the police not to take any coercive action against Pradhan in connection with the sixth case till October 12. It also said that the Congress candidate should not be treated as arrested in the case.
During the hearing, Justice Bhattacharyya noted that the state had stated on Tuesday that the five cases in which Pradhan is in custody were the only matters active against him. The court questioned the additional arrest of Pradhan in the sixth case, and expressed concern about potential abuse of process.
The cases against Pradhan stem from a series of protests that broke out in Nandigram in 2007 against the plans by the Left Front government at the time to set up a chemical hub. Fourteen persons were killed in police firing during the land acquisition stir.
Source:
Scroll.in
