The apex court asks Bengal to move High Court on filing FIR against Suvendu
Team News Riveting
Kolkata, December 15
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a petition by the West Bengal Government that sought to register a First Information Report (FIR) against West Bengal Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari in connection with the Asansol stampede incident.
According to state police, three people were killed and five seriously injured on Wednesday in a stampede at a blanket distribution programme in Paschim Bardhaman district. The victims include two women and a 12-year-old girl.
The stampede took place shortly after leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari left the programme organised by the local unit of the BJP. The programme was to distribute blankets in West Burdwan’s Asansol. Adhikari left the place around 6.30 pm after addressing the gathering and distributing blankets to a few people.
A gathering of around 5,000 people, mostly Hindi-speaking women, began to thronged at the venue that could hold barely 1,500 people and bumped to get the blankets that resulted in chaos and subsequently stampede.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi informed the Court that Adhikari was granted blanket protection from future FIRs by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the Calcutta High Court, which prevented the State from filing a FIR against him despite deaths during the stampede. He, therefore, sought the Court’s liberty to file an offence against the West Bengal’s Leader of Opposition.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said that although the single judge was unavailable, the State could move Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court for appropriate directions.
In view of this, the plea was withdrawn. The State will now move Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court.
