By-Srishti Lakhotia & Subrata ChattorajtnnKOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail till Oct 20 to Congress Nandigram candidate Milan Pradhan in six cases linked to Nandigram anti-land acquisition movement of 2007. Taking into account that Pradhan was arrested after filing his nomination on Sept 15, the court said “the petitioner may be granted an opportunity to contest” the Oct 6 Nandigram bypoll.Campaigning for the bypoll ends Oct 4, and counting of votes will be held Oct 9.Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed Pradhan’s release on a bail bond of Rs 20,000 and directed him to provide his phone number to Nandigram police station investigating officer, who would call him twice a day — between 10.30 am and 11.30 am and 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm — to check on his whereabouts. He would have to surrender before Haldia court on Oct 21.While granting the bail, Justice Ghosh considered observations made by Supreme Court in a case involving former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had sought interim bail to campaign for the 18th Lok Sabha election, and noted “that a holistic approach must be adopted”.Justice Ghosh also noted that Pradhan was a political activist associated with Nandigram land movement and was accused in several murder cases registered in 2007 at Nandigram and Khejuri police stations but his arrest happened only after he filed his nomination. Over the past 19 years, police had multiple opportunities to execute the warrants against Pradhan, he observed.Pradhan’s counsel, senior advocate Milon Mukherjee, argued he was “falsely implicated” in the 2007 cases “for political reasons and with an ulterior motive”.Appearing for the state, additional advocate general Rajdeep Mazumder argued that in Feb 2025, another bench of Calcutta HC had set aside a lower court’s order to withdraw six police cases against Milan Pradhan, considering their “heinous nature.” He also submitted that a candidate could not claim bail as a matter of right merely because he was contesting an election.During the hearing, the case of Rakesh Kumar Singh, BJP assembly election candidate from Kolkata Port, was also cited. Singh was in custody when he prayed for bail to contest the elections and the high court granted him interim bail after considering a letter from the Bengal unit president of BJP, which was then in opposition.Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar said, “Truth always triumphs. The state govt spent lakhs from taxpayers’ money to engage expensive lawyers and tried its best to block Pradhan’s bail. We welcome this verdict.”Debjit Sarkar, Bengal BJP spokesperson, said, “We have nothing to say on the HC order. We have noted that he has been asked to furnish bail bonds and report to police everyday. What is striking is that this person knew he had FIRs against him. Why did he not try to find out what happened to those FIRs? Who was shielding him all these years? What motive did they have?”Senior Mamata Trinamool functionary Kunal Ghosh said, “We welcome this order. Right after it was announced that Mamata Didi will support the candidate, he was arrested. This proves they are scared. Otherwise, why arrest him? If BJP has so much public support, why arrest a candidate and torture him?”
