KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal received yet another setback from the judiciary as the Calcutta High Court on Monday directed a court monitored CID probe and ordered the registration of an FIR against TMC MP Tapas Pal for his ‘hate speeches’ and severely criticised the State police for not taking any action.
Justice Dipanakar Datta rejected all arguments presented by the government lawyer and in his interim order asked the DG, West Bengal Police to convert all complaints against the erring MP as FIRs and conduct a probe by the CID, which would be monitored by the court.
He set a time limit and directed that the CID report to be submitted before the court by September 1.
Hearing the PIL against Tapas Pal for speeches on June 14 in which he instigated TMC workers to kill opposition party workers and said, “I will send my boys to rape their women”, Justice Datta observed, “Those who are lawmakers are violating the law, which will have far reaching consequences.” He pointed out to the government lawyer that Pal’s own lawyer had admitted his client’s crime before the same court and asked him on what grounds was he trying to defend the MP.
Rapping the State police for not initiating any action against Pal, Justice Datta remarked, “Shrugging off the MP’s speech merely as an emotional outburst will be tantamount to miscarriage of justice. He was a film actor but elected to the Parliament twice. He is an idol for many and his hate speech could have provoked his followers to commit crimes.”
Pal, in a letter to the TMC leadership tendered an “unconditional apology” stating that he had delivered those speeches “in the heat and dust during the campaign”.