Calcutta HC grants ex-BJP MP interim protection from coercive police action

Kolkata(The Uttam Hindu): A single judge bench of Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday, granted interim protection to Arjun Singh, the former BJP Lok Sabha member from Barrackpore constituency in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal from any sort of coercive police action, including arrest, in connection with a shootout between two groups of miscreants on March 26 night. However, the interim relief was granted by the single judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta just for 24 hours. The matter will come again for a hearing on Thursday at the same bench. In the shootout near his residence on March 26, one Trinamool Congress worker was injured after being hit by a bullet.

The local Trinamool Congress leadership alleged that Saddam was hit by a bullet that Singh himself fired from his pistol. The police issued notices to Singh to appear at the police station for interrogation, but the latter ignored those notices. Thereafter, an arrest warrant was issued against him following which he approached the Calcutta High Court for relief. The matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, and at the end of the hearing, Justice Sengupta granted him an interim relief from any coercive action for 24 hours.

Since the beginning, Singh has been denying the allegations against him. He claimed that as he went with his men to sort out a tension between two groups of workers of a local Meghna Jute Mill, suddenly, the ruling party supporters led by Namit Singh reached there and started quarreling with him .“Suddenly, their men started hurling bombs and shooting towards us. I had a narrow escape,” Singh said. This is not the first time that there has been tension and violence in front of Singh’s residence. In October last year, Singh was injured, being hit by the splinter of a crude bomb on his limb following an attack on his residence allegedly by the local Trinamool Congress activists. Singh had accused Namit Singh of being the mastermind behind the attack.