High Court accepts Samuel’s plea questioning validity of police probe

The counsel of Mathew Samuel, CEO of Narada News, on Monday submitted a petition before 

the Calcutta High Court questioning the validity of the probe undertaken by the Kolkata Police in the 

sting operation, which is a sub judice public interest litigation.

The Court accepted the petition and scheduled the hearing for Wednesday. Arunava Ghosh, Samuel’s counsel, submitted a petition with the Division Bench of the Chief Justice Manjula Chellur.

The development has come with just three days left for the Narada News CEO to turn up at the headquarters of the city police in Lalbazar, following the legal notice served to him.

The legal notice, directing Samuel to meet the investigating officers of the Kolkata Police, was issued on Friday after the police approached the Bankshall Court as he did not turn up to the city police’s headquarter despite being summoned twice.

Monday’s development of Mathew Samuel moving to the Calcutta High Court is significant as advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee had earlier raised the same issue before the Court, raising question on the significance of the Kolkata Police’s probe.

The Court had maintained that it is “not important what others are saying and doing. The most significant thing is what the Court is saying. Anyone can approach the Court if having any objection”.

It may be mentioned that Samuel’s counsel pleaded before the Court on Monday after the legal notice was served to the CEO and the officers of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) came to know about the transfer of crores of rupees from the bank account of a politician in Uttar Pradesh to Samuel’s account in Delhi.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had engaged the Kolkata Police to conduct probe into the sting operation after a meeting in Nabanna on June 17. Subsequently, a team, headed by Commissioner of Kolkata Police Rajeev Kumar was formed.