Ex-bodyguard's death case: Suvendu skips CID summons, gets court relief

KOLKATA: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, as anticipated, did not appear before the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday in connection with the investigation into the death case of his former bodyguard Suvabrata Chakraborty.

Later in the afternoon, Calcutta High Court (HC) granted relief to the Leader of Opposition instructing the police not to take any coercive measures against him.

Adhikari was summoned by the CID on Saturday to appear before the five-member CID team on Monday at 11 am at Bhabani Bhavan. But, Adhikari did not appear before the CID officers. Later, he sent an e-mail to the CID citing that a hearing was pending at the High Court on Monday regarding the cases registered against him. After the hearing, the High Court ordered a stay on proceedings in three cases against Adhikari.

The three cases include the death case of Chakraborty, which is being investigated by the CID.

Justice Raj Sekhar Mantha, during the hearing, ordered that police cannot take any coercive action against Adhikari. He cannot be arrested even if a new FIR gets registered against the BJP MLA. However, police can carry on with the investigation of the job scam case of Maniktala police station and the case registered against him for threatening a police official from a political meeting in Tamluk.

Earlier, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) team investigating the death case of Suvendu Adhikari's former security personnel Suvabrata Chakraborty visited the police barrack on Wednesday, where his body was found on October 13, 2018. Cops also went to the Contai police station before visiting the police barrack and interacted with the Inspector-in-Charge (IC) regarding the case. It may be mentioned that after taking over the investigation of the case, the CID team had interrogated Suvabrata's wife Suparna Kanjulal Chakraborty along with his brother and father.