The Calcutta High Court has stayed a police investigation in an FIR filed by Kolkata Police against Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya, Mukul Roy and other party leaders.
The FIR lodged at Hasting Police station named 24 people, including party MPs Arjun Singh and Locket Chatterjee, and booked them for “unlawful assembly having their common object to approach Nabanna i.e. high security zone”. The FIR was filed during West Bengal BJP’s march to State Secretariat (Nabanna) on October 8.
“In the meantime, however, the investigation into the FIR being Hastings Police Station FIR No. 109 dated 8/10/2020 shall remain stayed,” Justice Rajasekhar Mantha said in the order on November 10. He added that the matter may be listed before a regular Bench on November 26.
Appearing for the petitioners, Advocate Sekhar Basu submitted that the FIR had been registered in violation of and completely ignoring the law laid down by the Supreme Court of India in the case of Ramlila Maidan incident reported in 2012 . “Freedom of speech, right to assemble and demonstrate by holding dharnas and peaceful agitations are the basic features of a democratic system. The people of a democratic country like ours have a right to raise their voice against the decisions and actions of the government or even to express their resentment over the actions of the government on any subject of social or national importance…..” the advocate quoted from the Supreme Court observations.
The developments come as a respite to the BJP leadership which has taken legal recourse after they were booked by Kolkata Police last month.
