New Delhi, Nov 3 — The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea filed by Trinamool Congress MP and former cricketer Kirti Azad challenging an FIR registered against him in an alleged extortion case.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu said it would not permit Azad to invoke its jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution, as his anticipatory bail plea was already pending before the Calcutta High Court, which had granted him protection from arrest.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Azad, then sought permission to withdraw the petition. The Supreme Court allowed the request and dismissed the plea as withdrawn.
Azad, a member of India's 1983 Cricket World Cup-winning team and the Lok Sabha MP from Bardhaman-Durgapur, had approached the apex court challenging the FIR registered against him and some of his associates by the West Bengal Police in connection with allegations of extortion.
The Calcutta High Court had earlier granted him interim protection from coercive action, including arrest, for six months, while directing him to cooperate with the investigation being conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police.
The relief was granted by a single-judge Bench of Justice Kaushik Chanda on September 15.
The High Court had also directed the CID to give Azad at least seven days' advance notice before summoning him for interrogation. Subsequently, Azad appeared before the CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in Kolkata on September 22 for questioning in connection with the case.
The FIR stems from a complaint by a businessman, who alleged that he was summoned to Azad's bungalow in Durgapur on May 21 last year, where an associate of the MP allegedly demanded Rs 15 lakh from him.
The complainant further alleged that he was threatened with the closure of his cooking gas business if he failed to pay the amount and claimed to possess an audio recording of the incident. Azad has denied the allegations, describing them as part of a conspiracy to malign his image. He has maintained that he was not present in Durgapur on the date of the alleged incident and submitted his flight travel records before the High Court in support of his claim.