The Calcutta High Court on Monday ordered filing of a First Information Report against Trinamool Congress MP-cum-actor Tapas Pal for his > controversial comments against women and directed that the CID investigate the matter.
Justice Dipankar Dutta, passing his verdict on a petition seeking CID investigation into Pal’s comments against women and other opposition party supporters at election rallies, directed that the High Court would monitor the probe in view of West Bengal government’s stand that the complaint did not disclose any cognisable offence and that the state tried to back the MP.
Justice Dutta directed Inspector in-charge of Nakashipara police station in Nadia district to treat the July one complaint by petitioner Biplab Chowdhury, a resident of Pal’s constituency Krishnagar in Nadia district, as an FIR.
The court also directed the state DGP to transfer the case to the DIG, CID, within 72 hours of the order being uploaded in the high court’s website.
Justice Dutta directed the CID authorities to file a status report on progress of investigation on September one.
Justice Dutta, who had admonished the state on previous occasions also, quoted Martin Luther King Junior saying “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
>Pal had in an open letter tendered unconditional apology t o the media and the public at-large for his unsavoury comments.
Justice Dutta directed that the state CID would not disclose the report, which is to be submitted to the court on September one, to anyone without its prior leave.
He observed “Mr Pal and other MPs like him should know that they are under the rule of law and not law of rules.”
“Mr Pal was a Bengali film actor and subsequently got elected as Member of Parliament twice, so he is an idol to many men,” Justice Dutta observed, noting that such comments by him could have adverse effect on many people.
Pal, whose controversial remarks against women had sparked an outrage, on July 1 tendered an unconditional apology saying that in making such comments he has let down his constituency and the people of Bengal.
