Kolkata: Apprehending arrest following multiple FIRs registered against him, Dilip Mondal, the five-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Bishnupur (SC) Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district and the former West Bengal Minister of State for Transport, on Friday, approached the Calcutta High Court with an anticipatory bail plea.
In his petition filed at the single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya, he has also pleaded for the scrapping of all the FIRs registered against him.
Justice Bhattacharya has admitted the petition, and the matter is likely to come up for hearing on May 26.
Police have been trying to track Mondal since May 4, when the results for the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections were announced. Mondal has been accused of threatening the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers at gunpoint.
The police have already arrested five persons, including Mondal’s son Arghya Mondal, in this connection. Arghya was arrested with illegal firearms in his possession. He is accused of creating unrest in the area.
Recently, a purported video became viral in which Dilip Mondal was seen threatening the BJP workers. A complaint was filed against him at the local police station. On May 14, the police and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel reached his residence; however, he was not found there.
It is learnt that the MLA has two houses in the Pailan area in the South 24 Paraganas district.
The police raided both houses. One of his houses is built in a large area and has a spacious garden and a swimming pool. There is also a swing, a fountain and statues usually seen in a luxury resort.
Local people have said that, being a five-time legislator from Bishnupur (SC), Mondal was at one point considered the final word and created fear in the area. The locals alleged that, as he was an MLA when Trinamool was ruling, the police never took any action against him.
(IANS)
