New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to Sumit Roy, Personal Assistant (PA) of Trinamool Congress (TMC) General Secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, in a West Bengal Police case related to alleged illegal land grabbing.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, issued notice on Roy’s plea challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order that had refused him anticipatory bail.
The top court directed Roy to join the investigation and cooperate fully with the probe. It ordered that his arrest would remain stayed until further directions, provided he follows the court’s instructions.
SC directs Roy to cooperate with probe
The Supreme Court asked Roy to appear before the investigating agency for questioning and remain available for investigation between 10 am and 6 pm, with regular breaks.
The court also directed that Roy should not be accompanied by any lawyer or any other person during the questioning process.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Roy, assured the court that his client would cooperate with the investigation and sought protection from arrest.
Calcutta HC had rejected anticipatory bail plea
Roy approached the Supreme Court after the Calcutta High Court rejected his anticipatory bail application in connection with a case registered at Salboni Police Station in West Midnapore district.
The High Court had observed that the allegations and material collected during the investigation did not make it a suitable case for granting pre-arrest bail.
The court noted the prosecution’s claims that government-vested land was allegedly transferred with the help of certain land department officials and that forged title documents were recovered during the investigation.
Allegations of illegal land grabbing
The case relates to allegations that Roy was involved in grabbing and selling government land in Salboni using forged documents.
Following a complaint, police registered an FIR and started an investigation. As Roy could not be traced at his known addresses, a local court issued an arrest warrant against him.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police had also issued a lookout notice against Roy.
Roy denies charges
Roy had argued before the Calcutta High Court that he was not named in the FIR and was implicated later because he worked as the Personal Assistant of Abhishek Banerjee.
His counsel claimed there were no banking transactions or electronic communications linking him to the alleged offence and termed the case politically motivated.
However, the High Court said statements of witnesses and other material collected during the investigation required further verification and custodial investigation at that stage.
Searches conducted earlier
Earlier, police teams had conducted searches at Abhishek Banerjee’s residence in Kolkata’s Kalighat and at Roy’s in-laws’ residence in Serampore, but he was not found.
The investigation into the alleged land-grabbing case is continuing.