New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted seven days’ protection from arrest to BJP candidate from Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency Arjun Singh so that he could attend the counting of votes tomorrow.
Granting protection from arrest to Arjun Singh starting from today and ending on May 28, the vacation bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice M.R. Shah said that after May 28 when protection would cease to operate the state government would be free to take action in accordance with the law.
Before crossing over to the BJP, Arjun Singh was Trinamul Congress lawmaker in West Bengal Assembly.
Restraining the state police from taking any coercive action against Arjun Singh in the cases filed in May 2019 or earlier, the court today said that he could move the competent court for bail.
Injuncting the West Bengal government from taking any coercive action, the court in its order said, “No arrest is made for five days from today to May 28. Thereafter the protection would cease to operate and the state can act in accordance with the law.”
The court passed the order noting that the courts in West Bengal were “paralysed” in the wake of the indefinite strike by the lawyers since April 25.
Having granted the protection to the BJP leader, Justice Mishra in a scathing observation said that “violence is very common there. For nothing, they will fight”.
He further observed that those who indulge in violence have no political affiliations and “They belong to no party and join the party in power. Whosoever comes to power, they join them …”
The court also recalled the face-off between the West Bengal police and the CBI which is investigating Saradha scam on the directions of the top court.
Describing the action of West Bengal government as “vindictive”, senior counsel Ranjit Kumar told the court that after Arjun Singh switched sides, the ruling party foisted a number of cases.
In eight cases, he has been granted bail but in other cases filed from May 5, 2019, till May 20, he could not get bail because of the strike.
Appearing for West Bengal, Astha Sharma told the court that there were several cases against Arjun Singh, including one under arms Act.
Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analysis et al. Happy reading.
