Calcutta HC extends stay on coercive police action against 47 BJP workers

Kolkata, July 2 (IANS) A single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Tuesday, extended the stay on coercive police action, including arrest, against 47 BJP workers at Nandigram against whom FIRs have been registered.Earlier, on June 26, the single-judge Bench of Justice Amrita Sinha had barred the state police from adopting any coercive action against these 47 BJP cadres till further court orders and the next date of hearing.The matter came up for hearing at her Bench on Tuesday afternoon and at the end of the hearing, Justice Sinha extended the stay on coercive police action by another three weeks.During the hearing, Justice Sinha observed that prima facie it seems that the same charges have been brought against all 47 BJP workers in the FIRs filed against them by the police in East Midnapore District.She also observed that there is a necessity to examine the authenticity of the charges in the FIRs.The 47 FIRs were in relation to police investigation on post-poll violence at Nandigram, where the elected BJP legislator is the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.Suvendu Adhikari alleged that at Nandigram the police were booking the victims of post-poll violence.On Tuesday, Justice Sinha asked all the parties concerned in the case to file their respective affidavits following which the matter will come for hearing again.BJP’s state General Secretary, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, claimed that not just at Nandigram but elsewhere in the state also the police were implicating the BJP cadres in false cases.“That is why we have to approach the court again and again,” he said.–IANSsrc/rad