HC grants conditional bail to accused of 2022 Midnapore blast case
Kolkata: Observing there is no chance of an early conclusion of the trial, Calcutta High Court has granted conditional bail to two of the accused in the 2022 blast in East Midnapore’s Bhupatinagar.
The bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray was moved by two accused seeking bail.
On the night of December 2, 2022, three persons died when they were allegedly preparing firecrackers/bombs. Initially, the state police investigated the matter and submitted a charge sheet. Later, the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Calcutta High Court (HC). The two accused were arrested by the NIA in April 2024 and since then have been in jail custody. The petitioners’ counsel submitted that earlier the HC had barred NIA from taking coercive action against them till 2023, Panchayat elections were over. The NIA began sending notices to harass them once the process of Lok Sabha elections began in 2024.
The NIA counsel opposed bail prayer. He submitted they have tremendous influence over the local police personnel and people. One of them was the president of the local block Trinamool Congress. They had directed the three deceased persons along with others to prepare explosives so they could terrorise the local people during election time and gain political mileage for their party. There are sufficient incriminating materials showing that the compositions of chemicals present in the seized items are explosive substances. They also tried to mislead the police investigation.
Observing the trial of the case will not conclude within a reasonable period of time, the court granted them conditional bail. The NIA was given the liberty to keep a vigil upon the petitioners and monitor their phone calls. Each petitioner will use only two mobile phone numbers after disclosing the numbers to the concerned investigating officer.
They shall not reside in the same residential address and shall remain within the jurisdiction of New Town Police Station, Rajarhat, Kolkata, except for the purpose of attending court proceedings.
