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Supreme Court Grants Interim Protection From Arrest To Mamata Banerjee's Polling Agent Sheikh Sufiyan In Murder Case
Srishti Ojha
20 Jan 2022 6:49 AM GMT
The Supreme Court of India on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to TMC leader Sheikh Sufiyan accused in a murder case in the West Bengal post-poll violence case currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Notably, Sufiyan was the polling agent of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.A...
The Supreme Court of India on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to TMC leader Sheikh Sufiyan accused in a murder case in the West Bengal post-poll violence case currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Notably, Sufiyan was the polling agent of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.
A bench comprising Justice Nageswara Rao and Justice BR Gavai has issued the direction in a special leave petition filed by Sufiyan challenging the Calcutta High Court's order rejecting his anticipatory bail application.
While directing the matter to be listed on 31st January, the Court has directed the State of West Bengal to file before the court all the statements recorded in the case under section 164 CrPC after the chargesheet was filed.
The Bench has clarified that no adjournments will be granted on January 31st and the case will finally be disposed of that day.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the State submitted the Impugned order is of 29th November and for 2 months the petitioner has managed to not be arrested.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the petitioner submitted that the supplementary chargesheet has been filed where again the petitioner hasn't been mentioned.
"We are granting protection for a week. We want to see the entire record before admitting your petition, and we will proceed only after that. We are just asking the State to place on record the papers which are relevant for us to hear all of you later." Justice Nageswara Rao said.
"Its is a very serious offence. We will satisfy your Lordships. He is quite powerful. This will have its own repercussions." SG Mehta said
"Please don't get politics into this." Justice Rao remarked.
SG further said that he is not on politics, and a series of violent events were engineered by the petitioner.
Sufiyan is an accused in the murder case of BJP worker Debabrata Maity. Maity was allegedly attacked by Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers on May 3, a day after the West Bengal Assembly poll results were announced. He succumbed to his injuries at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata on May 13. Sufiyan was summoned by the CBI back in September 2021 in connection with his alleged involvement in the murder case of Maity.
In the High Court's impugned order, a Division Bench comprising Justices Debangsu Basak and Bibahas Ranjan De had observed that
"Considering the gravity of the offence and considering the materials in the case diary and considering the statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, implicating the petitioner in the incident and considering the fact that the CBI is conducting the investigation pursuant to the order passed by the Full Bench and considering the fact that the investigations are yet to be concluded, we are unable to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner"
Pertinently, the High Court vide order dated August 19 had directed the CBI to conduct investigation of cases related to murder, rape and crime against women that had allegedly taken place in the aftermath of the declaration of election results. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) had also been constituted by the Court to investigate cases other than murder, rape and crimes against women that had allegedly taken place post the declaration of the West Bengal assembly elections in May 2021. On September 29, the Supreme Court had issued notice in the petition filed by the State of West Bengal challenging the High Court's direction for CBI investigation into cases of murder, rape and crimes against women which allegedly took place during the post-poll violence in West Bengal.
The Division Bench noted that the CBI had submitted a charge sheet on October 5, 2021 retaining the right of further investigation and filing a further charge sheet. Thereafter, in the charge sheet submitted on October 5, 2021, the CBI did not name Sufiyan as one of the accused, the Bench noted further.
However, after coming across statements recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and also the statement recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC , the CBI had implicated Sufiyan as one of the principal persons involved in the alleged incident. On this ground, the CBI has opposed the prayer for anticipatory bail of the petitioner, the Court noted further.
Case Title: SK. Supiyan @ Suffiyan @ Supisan v. CBI
