The Calcutta high court delivered yet another blow to Trinamool Congress by ordering that the CID probe the string of hate speeches by Lok Sabha MP Tapas Pal on June 14, where he threatened CPI(M) supporters with rape and murder by his boys.
Justice Nishita Mhatre delivered the verdict on Thursday morning. The matter was referred to her after the judges of a division bench differed in their opinions.
According to this verdict, the Central Investigation Department has to lodge an FIR acting on the complaint filed at Nakashipara police station in July.
The verdict is a rap on Trinamool Congress for the second day in succession. On Wednesday, a single bench of Calcutta high court ordered a CBI probe in the Parui murder case where more than one Trinamool Congress leader is accused.
While in the Parui case chief minister Mamata Banerjee stuck her neck out in shielding Anubrata Mondal, the Birbhum district party president, in the Tapas Pal case she 'forgave' the MP after he wrote an apology letter in early July.
During the hearing in the second week of September, justice Mhatre wondered how the state police failed to find the Trinamool Congress MP's purported speech a cognizable offence despite getting all the documents, including the CD and newspaper clippings.
{{/usCountry}}During the hearing in the second week of September, justice Mhatre wondered how the state police failed to find the Trinamool Congress MP's purported speech a cognizable offence despite getting all the documents, including the CD and newspaper clippings.
{{/usCountry}}"It is a very sorry state of affairs... There should be some code of conduct," the judge observed.
Justice Mhatre is the third judge to hear the case. Chief justice Manjula Chellur assigned the politically sensitive case to her after the division bench of justices Girish Gupta and Tapabrata Chakrabarty differed in their opinion.
Earlier, justice Dipankar Datta had heard the case and made critical observations. The state government and Tapas Pal had moved the division bench against the single bench order.
Justice Mhatre almost upheld Dipankar Dutta's order, except the point that the probe should be monitored by the court.
The Tapas Pal hate speech triggered a storm of protest from a large section of the society, and pushed Trinamool Congress party on the backfoot.