Kolkata, Nov 6 (IANS) A single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday refused to hear the anticipatory bail plea from Sumit Roy, the executive assistant of the Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee.
Roy was arrested by the Kolkata police earlier this year in a land corruption case at Salboni in West Midnapore district of West Bengal.
He had earlier approached the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail in that case.
After the application was rejected there, the police arrested him.
Sumit then approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the arrest.
The hearing of the land corruption case was held on Friday by the single-judge vacation bench of Justice Arindam Mukhopadhyay.
However, Justice Mukhopadhyay on Friday refused to hear the matter and said that the matter will be heard by any regular bench after the regular functioning of the court will resume on November 16, at the end of the ongoing festival vacation.
This means that Sumit Roy will remain in jail during the forthcoming Kali Puja and Diwali festival.
On Friday, Sumit Roy’s counsel and the former West Bengal Advocate General Kishore Dutta said in court that his client was arrested in a five-year-old case for political reasons.
On the other hand, Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar, who represented the state government, said that since the investigation was in its initial stage and much more information was coming into the hands of the investigators, a bail granted to the accused might hamper the investigation process.
After hearing the statements of both sides, Justice Mukhopadhyay said that he would not comment on the case right at this moment and the matter will be heard in a regular bench when the court would reopen after the festival vacation.
Meanwhile, another case in relation to a Rs 300 crore soil-theft case had been registered against Sumit Roy at Kalitala-Ashuti Police Station under Diamond Harbour Police in South 24 Parganas district.
Sumit Roy is currently in police custody in relation to a second case related to soil theft.
On Thursday, Abhishek Banerjee alleged that Sumit Roy was constantly being threatened with an encounter and pressured by the police to give statements against him.
–IANS
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