On Wednesday, the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench of the Calcutta High Court granted anticipatory bail to six CISF personnel in connection with the firing incident that took place during the last state Assembly polls in Sitalkuchi, where four persons died.
On April 10, 2021, during the state Assembly election, CISF personnel had allegedly fired several rounds near booth 126 of Jorpatki in Sitalkuchi of Cooch Behar, resulting in four deaths. A FIR was lodged against six Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel. CISF claimed that the bullets were fired to protect the polling booth, voters, and polling staff.
Aditi Shankar Chakraborty, Additional public prosecutor of the Jalpaiguri circuit bench said that the CID had conducted an investigation and submitted a report to the court. The accused were summoned to court 8 times. But they did not appear.
Instead, they applied for anticipatory bail on Wednesday. Judges of the division bench of Jalpaiguri circuit bench, Sr. Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Justice Sampa Datta Paul, granted bail to the six accused CISF personnel in this case. The accused CISF personnel are Dipak Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Girish Kumar, Sudhir Kumar, Nityanand Das, and Javed Nilesh Nande. Cenrtain bail conditions have been specified also.