The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted pre-arrest bail to S.K. Supiyan, the election agent of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a murder case probed by the CBI.
Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Abhay S.Oka said the court is granting pre-arrest bail to Supiyan, but imposed several conditions. The detailed judgment in the matter will be out later in the day.
On February 4, a bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Abhay S. Oka reserved the judgment after hearing arguments on the plea moved by Supiyan against the Calcutta High Court order, which refused to entertain his bail plea. Last month, the top court had granted him interim protection from arrest in the matter.
The CBI, in its affidavit opposing the pre-arrest bail plea of Supiyan in connection with the alleged murder of a BJP supporter after poll results were declared, said he hatched a criminal conspiracy to teach a lesson to Hindus, who voted for BJP resulting in loss of the Trinamool Congress candidate in the Nandigram Assembly constituency. The agency claimed that Supian allegedly carried out violent attacks on local villagers, causing the death of one Debabrata Maity.
The affidavit said: “As per the records of the investigations conducted so far all of this was done by the petitioner to send a political message that any political opposition would be punished with death, grievous injuries, and with extreme mental trauma. It is submitted that the aforesaid acts of the commission constitute heinous offenses against the society and destroy the very fabric of the body polity of the state”.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Supiyan, argued that his client’s name was not mentioned either in the FIR registered by the authorities in May last year, or in the complaint and also, he was not named in the chargesheets filed by the CBI.
Mamata Banerjee, who had contested from Nandigram, lost the election to her former aide-turned-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Suvendu Adhikari. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into various incidents of killings and sexual assault, which occurred in the state after election results were declared.
