Kolkata: A single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Sumit Roy, the absconding Personal Assistant of Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha MP, Abhishek Banerjee.
West Bengal Police had registered an FIR against Roy in a case related to land-grabbing in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. Roy, although remaining absconding since then, moved an anticipatory bail plea through his counsel at the Calcutta High Court.
However, on Monday, the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh rejected that anticipatory bail.
Roy was accused of grabbing and selling government-vested land in Salboni in West Midnapore, using fake documents.
Based on a complaint filed against Roy in the matter, the police launched an investigation. A search began for him. But when Roy could not be traced at any of his addresses, the police approached the district court in West Midnapore, which issued an arrest warrant against him.
On the same day, Roy’s counsel approached the Calcutta High Court seeking anticipatory bail through his counsel.
Roy’s counsel had earlier requested an urgent hearing in the matter and also pleaded for a change of Bench for hearing. However, that request was rejected. The matter came up for hearing on Monday at the regular Bench of Justice Ghosh, which finally rejected the anticipatory bail plea.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police in June this year issued a ‘lookout notice’ against Roy. On June 13, officers from the Salboni police station arrived at Trinamool MP Abhishek’s residence in Kalighat in south Kolkata early in the morning in search of Roy.
The police were accompanied by central forces and after waiting for a considerable time, the police broke open the lock and entered the premises.
According to sources, the last tower location trace for Roy’s mobile phone had been detected at Abhishek’s house. Acting on this lead, the police raided the residence. However, the PA was not found there.
On the same day, the police also conducted a search at his in-laws’ house in Serampore in Hooghly district, but failed to locate him there as well.
(IANS)
