Justice Jay Sengupta of the HC, who passed the order on Friday, however quashed a list of 15 FIRs which were earlier lodged against Mr Adhikari by the state police
Kolkata: Dealing a major blow to West Bengal leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari ahead of the Assembly Election in the state, the Calcutta High Court has removed its interim legal cover to him from facing first information reports (FIR) by the state police in future.
The HC has also constituted a joint special investigation team, comprising state police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in four cases including one at Maniktala in Kolkata and put the Nandigram BJP MLA to face its probe in those.
The joint SIT would include a superintendent of police-rank officer each from the state police and CBI, who can depute an equal number of personnel from their sides for investigation.
Justice Jay Sengupta of the HC, who passed the order on Friday, however quashed a list of 15 FIRs which were earlier lodged against Mr Adhikari by the state police.
While withdrawing Mr Adhikari’s protection granted by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the HC nearly two years ago, the judge observed, “An interim order can not be permanent.” He also gave three days’ time to Mr Adhikari, if he wants to make an appeal against the order, to submit it in writing to the HC.
Mr Adhikari was enjoying the legal cover after Justice Mantha ordered the state police on December 8 of 2022 not to book the BJP leader in any further FIR without the HC permission.
The judge passed the order responding to a plea by the leader of the opposition who had then alleged that the state police booked him in 26 false cases between May 5 in 2021 and November 27 in 2022. Trinamul Congress welcomed Justice Sengupta’s order. Its spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed, “An interim legal cover can not be taken for eternity to anyone merely on the basis of assumption.”
