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News Desk: The Supreme Court Wednesday stayed proceedings on two FIRs lodged against West Bengal BJP leader Kabir Shankar Bose after perusing CISF”s special incident report on the scuffle between his security staff and Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers.
The top court also sought response from the West Bengal government and the state police on the plea filed by Bose, seeking probe by an independent agency.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy issued notice to the state government.
During the hearing, senior advocates Mahesh Jethmalani, Anupam Lal Das and advocate Sameer Kumar, appearing for Bose, said that as directed by the top court in its last hearing, the CISF has filed its report in a sealed cover describing the incident of December 6 last year.
Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, appearing for the Centre, also confirmed that the CISF report has been filed as directed by the top court.
On January 5, the top court had asked the Centre to place on record the special incident report filed by CISF on an alleged scuffle between the TMC workers and security staff of Bose.
The top court had also sought in sealed cover the movement logbook of the leader pertaining to the day of incident.
A Special Incident Report, or SIR, is a formal report filed with the regional centre whenever a person served by the regional centre is involved in an unusual event, such as a crime or injury.
Bose has sought direction for transferring investigation in the case to CBI or SIT or any independent agency from West Bengal Police.
He has also sought stay of investigation and further proceedings in FIRs lodged against him by the West Bengal Police pertaining to the alleged scuffle that took place on December 6.
Bose, who is spokesperson of BJP, also sought direction for calling of reports of CISF submitted to Ministry of Home Affairs with regard to the incident.
“The Petitioner is filing the instant Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India before this Court owing to the wreaking of political vengeance and specific targeting of the Petitioner by the State Government of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress and Kalyan Bannerji, a sitting TMC MP, due to the political and personal rivalry and is praying that this Court safeguard the Petitioner from the threats to his life and liberty which he faces from the State Government of West Bengal; Trinamool Congress and Kalyan Bannerji,” his plea said.
Bose claimed in his plea that on December 6, at Serampore of West Bengal, he along with his CISF guards came under heavy attack and sloganeering under the leadership of one Santosh Kumar Singh alias Pappu Singh just outside his residence around 8 pm.
“As part of protocol, CISF immediately secured the Petitioner in a secured location and removed him from the spot. What ensued thereafter was protocol on part of CISF to secure their protectee’s life and the Petitioner was not even present on the spot. Till 2 am the entire building was under siege by over 200 TMC hooligans led by Kalyan Banerji, the sitting member of parliament of the area supported actively by the state police,” his plea said.
Bose said that on December 7, early morning West Bengal police completely sealed off the building and prevented him from exiting the building on the ground of law and order problems.
“At the police station, the police officials were repeatedly saying that Kalyan Banerji is giving tremendous pressure for an immediate arrest of the Petitioner. Hence the Petitioner was arrested at the police station. Thereafter, the Petitioner was deliberately and intentionally kept in a Covid isolation ward alongwith other Covid patients for around 4 hrs in utter violation of his right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution of India,” he said.
On December 18 last year, the top court had granted interim protection from any coercive action to five BJP leaders, including Mukul Roy and MPs Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arjun Singh, in criminal cases lodged against them in West Bengal.
The relief was also given to two other BJP leaders — Sourav Singh and Pawan Kumar as the apex court directed the state police not to take any coercive action till it hears their pleas next in January.
It was alleged by the lawyers, appearing for BJP leaders, that criminal cases are being foisted on party leaders at the instance of ruling All India Trinamool Congress Party.
All the leaders have filed separate pleas seeking protection in cases lodged against them in the state and alleged that criminal cases have been foisted against them to deter them from undertaking political activities in the state ahead of assembly polls.
The BJP leaders have also sought investigation by an independent agency into the cases registered against them in West Bengal.
