Supreme Court relief to BJP leaders facing criminal cases in West Bengal

The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection to BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya, Mukul Roy, Arjun Singh, Kabir Shankar Bose and others from any coercive actions in cases lodged by the West Bengal police.

A bench presided over by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice to the West Bengal government on their plea to transfer all criminal cases "foisted" upon them by the West Bengal government due to "vindictive actions", to an independent agency.

Six BJP leaders from West Bengal approached the top court claiming a number of FIRs were registered against them by the state police due to personal and political interest of TMC party members.

Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for MP Arjun Singh, contended 64 cases were registered against him between March, 2019 and September, 2020 as he left TMC to join BJP.

Advocate Prashant Kumar for Saurav Singh, nephew of Arjun, said all cases were foisted on him on joining rival BJP. Pawan Singh, son of Arjun said he was a sitting MLA and nine cases were lodged against him after deserted the ruling TMC.

Vijayvargiya's counsel said he was not even residing in West Bengal but cases were lodged to desist him from entering the state.

Similarly, Mukul Roy's counsel submitted 19 cases were registered against him after he resigned from the TMC to join BJP.

Kabir represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani said his life was under threat as he was attacked by his ex father-in-law and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee and other of party workers. He said a scuffle took place between his security of CISF and TMC workers.

The court sought a report from the Home Ministry in sealed envelope after noting that his case was different than rest of the petitioners.