On Friday, the Supreme Court protected BJP leaders Arjun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Pawan Singh, Mukul Roy and Saurav Singh from any coercive action to be taken by the West Bengal Police in the FIRs registered against them pending investigation.
The three-judge bench headed by Judge SK Kaul issued a notice regarding petitions filed by top BJP leaders claiming that they were being imposed false cases to prevent them from entering the state before assembly elections early next year.
All of the cases followed a similar pattern in which criminal cases were brought against most of these petitioners after they left the ruling Trinamool Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
BJP leader Arjun Singh listed 64 criminal cases filed against him in 2019 that were related to minor offenses of breaking public order and causing injury.
The higher court dealt separately with the case of Kabir Bose, who is the spokesperson for BJP and who was previously with TMC. He requested a report from the CISF on an incident in which he was arrested as a defendant in an assassination attempt. Bose claimed that he was protected by the CISF Special Security Group and therefore requested the report submitted by CISF, SSG to the Ministry of the Interior.
The Supreme Court ordered that the report be presented to it in a sealed cover at the next hearing date set in January.
Lead Counsel Mukul Rohtagi appeared before the four BJP leaders, including BJP Vice President Kailash Vijayvargiya, while Lead Counsel Mahesh Jethmalaani represented Kabir Bose.
Except for Kabir Bose’s petition, in the rest of the cases, the court, which also includes Judges Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy, said: “Until the next hearing date, no coercive measures should be recorded in any case against the petitioners. “
The notice was sent to the West Bengal government and the West Bengal police.
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