Mukul Roy granted interim bail

Kolkata: In a major relief to senior BJP leader Mukul Roy, the Calcutta High Court has granted him an interim bail in the murder of Trinamul Congress MLA Satyajit Biswas during a Saraswati Puja inauguration at Hanskhali in Nadia on Februray 9 evening.

A division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Abhijit Ganguly on Wednesday ordered that Mr Roy could not be arrested till March 7 while directing him to cooperate with the probe.

The BJP national executive committee member has also been barred from entering Nadia where Biswas was an MLA of Krishnaganj constituency. The division bench also asked him to respond within 24 hours if he gets any notice from the police for the purpose of investigation.

On Tuesday, Mr Roy had moved the high court appealing for his anticipatory bail after he was booked by the police on murder charge along with three others in the killing of Biswas.

His lawyer Subhashis Dasgupta said, “Today’s hearing was based on the investigation which was conducted in the past three days and materials collected on the basis of that. But the high court is not satisfied with it. That is why the court gave them further time while scheduling the hearing in the case till March 5. It also gave him a protection of not to arrest till March 7 on the condition that no entry can be made to Nadia, but cooperation has to be made as and when required.”

Mr Dasgupta claimed, “A notice has to be served to me and him 24 hours before time. Based on that we will be ready to cooperate in the investigation. Another angle of political victimisation has come up based on the materials and statement collected so far. There are chances that Mr Roy would be falsely implicated in the case as he is a political personality. According to him, the case may have been filed against him to demean him since he enjoys considerable prestige.”