New Delhi, Aug 6 — The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to Sumit Roy, Personal Assistant of Trinamool Congress General Secretary and Diamond Harbour MP, Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with a West Bengal Police case relating to alleged illegal land grabbing, while directing him to join and fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI), Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana issued notice on Roy's Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the Calcutta High Court's order refusing him anticipatory bail.
Subject to Roy joining the investigation and extending full cooperation to the investigating agency, the apex court ordered that his arrest will remain stayed till further orders.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Roy, undertook before the top court that the petitioner would cooperate with the investigation and sought interim protection from arrest.
Recording the undertaking, the CJI Kant-led Bench directed Roy to appear before the investigating agency for interrogation and cooperate with the probe.
"The petitioner to fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation. He should not be accompanied by any advocate or any other person. He shall remain available for any investigation from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with the usual breaks. However, his arrest will remain stayed," it ordered.
Roy moved the Supreme Court after the Calcutta High Court earlier this week rejected his anticipatory bail plea in connection with the land-grabbing case registered by the Salboni Police Station in West Midnapore district.
Rejecting the plea, a single-judge Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of the Calcutta High Court held that it was not a fit case for grant of anticipatory bail in view of the nature of the allegations and the material collected during the investigation.
The High Court took note of the prosecution's case that government lands were allegedly transferred with the aid of certain land department officials and that several forged title deeds had been seized during the investigation.
It also referred to statements of security personnel who allegedly witnessed threats extended by Roy when the issue of refund of money arose, observing that these circumstances did not warrant grant of pre-arrest bail.
Roy had contended before the Calcutta High Court that he was not named in the FIR and was subsequently implicated only because he served as the Personal Assistant to the General Secretary of Trinamool Congress.
His counsel argued that there were no banking transactions or electronic communications linking him to the alleged offence and claimed that the case was politically motivated.
However, the High Court held that the statements collected during investigation, including those of police personnel and other witnesses, required further verification and custodial investigation at that stage, leading it to reject the anticipatory bail plea.
The case relates to allegations that Roy grabbed and sold government-vested land in Salboni using forged documents. Following a complaint, the police registered an FIR and launched 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 earlier issued a lookout notice against Roy.
In June, police teams also 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.