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Husband of sitting Calcutta HC judge alleges torture by CID during questioning
Protap Chandra Dey, the husband of sitting Calcutta high court judge, justice Amrita Sinha, alleged that CID sleuths put pressure on him to depose against his wife
The lawyer-husband of a sitting Calcutta high court judge has alleged that he was tortured by officials of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the name of investigation.
Protap Chandra Dey, who practises in a district court, has lodged a complaint in this regard with the president of the bar association of the metropolitan magistrate’s court. He is the husband of justice Amrita Sinha.
“I was treated like a criminal, accused of some heinous crime. I was interrogated by more than one officers and questions were asked only about my wife and personal details . . . They behaved like local goons. They shouted at the top of their voice; not a single decent language was used. All slang and filthy expletives,” Dey wrote in the letter.
Justice Sinha, who is presently hearing some of the petitions in the multi-crore recruitment scam in West Bengal schools, had directed the ED to question Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and the party’s national general secretary.
Dey alleged that CID sleuths put pressure on him to depose against his wife. The torture increased when he refused. He also stated that the officers pounced on him multiple times to build pressure and forcefully extract false information to frame his wife with corruption charges.
“I was offered huge sum of money, expensive cars, luxurious residential apartments and many others which I am ashamed to mention. I was threatened with dire consequences if I failed to depose as per their advice. My child and wife have also been threatened. They said that if I fail to tow their line, they will ruin my entire family by butchering us into pieces,” he added.
“The CID will issue a statement by Wednesday night,” said a senior CID officer. Till around 4pm the CID didn’t issue any statement.
In September this year, the Bidhannagar Police registered a FIR on the basis of a complaint lodged by a sexagenarian woman, Bani Roy Chowdhury, against her family members in a property dispute. Allegations, however, surfaced that Dey was unduly influencing the case. The investigation was later transferred to the CID.
“My client is not related to this case. He doesn’t know Chowdhury and never called her. He is not even named in the FIR. The respondent, however, moved the Supreme Court alleging that my client was exerting undue influence on account of his spousal status, being the husband of a sitting judge of the high court,” said Pratik Basu, counsel of Dey.
The Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti on November 6 directed the CID to continue with the investigation. The matter is likely to be heard again in January 2024.
The CID questioned Dey for around three-and-a-half hours on December 1 and again for around nine hours on December 16.
“As a practising advocate I would like to request you to take prompt necessary action against the wrongdoers and protect the interest of the bar. If no action is taken, then such type of incidents may recur in future,” Dey wrote in his letter.
“This is nothing but a brazen attempt to intimidate the Judiciary. Advocate Protap Chandra Dey, husband of Justice Amrita Sinha, sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court, who is hearing several matters relating to scams involving Mamata Banerjee’s Govt and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, is summoned by West Bengal CID and harassed to make statements against his wife, in a matter he is not involved in. This is extremely serious and the Bar Council must take note of this at the highest level,” Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT head, wrote on his X handle.
Kunal Ghosh, spokesperson of the TMC, said: “When there is any investigation against the TMC, we hear political leaders say that the investigation is being done on the orders of the court. In this case too investigation is being done after the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead. No one is above the law. I am not speaking against any particular lawyer or any particular judge. But if someone has misused the position of his wife, who is a judge, law will take its own course.”
