Kolkata, December 24
Congress MP from Behrampore in Murshidabad district Adhir Chowdhury was yesterday granted bail by a Division Bench of Calcutta High Court, comprising Justice S.P. Mitra and Justice Amit Talukdar.
Chowdhury was arrested from his MP’s bungalow in New Delhi on November 19 on the charge of killing a hotel owner and his son at Behrampore on July 24 last year.
Earlier, a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against him by the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Behrampore who had refused bail to the MP more than once.
But yesterday, the High Court, after hearing the writ petition filed on behalf of Chowdhury, granted him bail on the submission of a security bond of Rs 50,000 and surrendering of his passport to the court.
The MP was also directed not to make any visit to his home district in Murshidabad, barring on the hearing dates of pending cases at the court there.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Union Information Minister Priya Dasmunshi, who had earlier alleged that Chowdhury had been indicted by the police at the instance of the CPM, expressed relief after the report of the MP’s release on bail reached them in Delhi.
The state Congress, which had been waging a prolonged agitation throughout the state against Chowdhury’s arrest, would also decide its future course of action after discussing the issue with Mukherjee and other leaders soon.
Former WBPCC chief Somen Mitra and party’s working president Pradip Bhattacharyya, who took part in the protest march on Friday in the city against Chowdhury’s detention, favoured that the agitation should continue till all innocent people, now in jails at the instance of the CPM, were released.
