A court in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district on Monday remanded Congress' Nandigram bypoll candidate Milan Pradhan to 14-day judicial custody in a nearly two-decade-old case registered under the Arms Act.
Pradhan was sent to judicial custody till October 5 by the Contai court, his counsel Ayan Bhattacharjee said, adding that he will challenge the order before the Calcutta High Court.
The latest remand comes after he was already sent to judicial custody by the Haldia Sub-Divisional Court on Saturday until October 3 in connection with four other pending non-bailable arrest warrants linked to cases in Nandigram dating back to 2007.
While the Nandigram police station cases against Pradhan were registered between April and Novermber, 2007, the one at Khejuri police station was lodged in July that year, officials said.
The twin court orders have, for now, effectively ended Pradhan's opportunity to canvass for himself as the campaign for the October 6 bypoll to the Nandigram assembly seat, vacated by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, ends on October 4.
Adhikari resigned from the Nandigram seat in May, opting to retain Bhabanipur after defeating former chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the assembly poll held earlier this year.
The Haldia court order had already meant that Pradhan could, at best, get only a very brief opportunity to campaign if he secured bail. The Contai court's latest order extending custody until October 5 virtually negates even that possibility.
The cases against Pradhan stem from the violent agitation against land acquisition by then Left Front government in Nandigram and Khejuri in 2007.
Police said the pending cases include allegations of murder, attempt to murder, abduction with intent to murder, disappearance of evidence, house trespass, rioting with arms and offences under the Arms Act.
They said Pradhan had been evading arrest for years and charge-sheeted in the cases concerned as an absconder. The arrest was carried out on the basis of the long-pending, non-bailable warrants, police said.
The development has already created a political dust-up as Pradhan's arrest came just hours after Mamata Banerjee on September 18 announced that her faction of the Trinamool Congress would support the Congress candidate in Nandigram, after its nominee Sanchita Pradhan De withdrew from the contest.
The Congress has questioned the timing of the police action, alleging that old cases were being revived to disrupt Pradhan's campaign.
State Congress leaders have pointed out that he had completed the nomination and scrutiny process before being arrested, while wondering why the police had failed to execute the warrants earlier.
The party maintained that despite Pradhan’s absence from the poll campaign, there will be no let up in its canvassing schedule.
“The conspiracy was afoot right from the beginning to keep our candidate out of the campaign fray. To that extent, the ruling party has succeeded,” alleged Ashutosh Chatterjee , general secretary, state pradesh Congress committee.
“But despite our candidate’s absence, our party – led by PCC president Shubhankar Sarkar – will be accompanied by Pradhan’s family members during campaigning. We will leave the verdict to the people who can surely see through what’s happening in Nandigram,” Chatterjee said.
Meanwhile, Pradhan has moved the Calcutta High Court seeking protection from coercive action in five additional cases. His lawyer told the court on Monday that while he was already in custody in cases for which no relief was being sought at this stage, there were five other cases in which he feared arrest.
The court permitted the petition to be filed and fixed Tuesday for hearing.
The arrest and successive court proceedings have added another layer of uncertainty to an already volatile Nandigram bypoll.
With Mamata Banerjee's faction backing Congress in a significant departure from their longstanding rivalry in Bengal, Pradhan's continued incarceration has now emerged as one of the central issues in the Nandigram campaign.
(With inputs from PTI)