In a relief to Union Minister of State for Home Nisith Pramanik, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the West Bengal police not to take any coercive action against him in a 2018 attempt to murder case.
A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal ordered listing of his petition challenging the arrest warrant issued against him in the case before the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench of the Calcutta High Court on January 22.
The bench said no coercive action shall be taken against him till the high court takes up the matter.
"I am a Member of Parliament. The high court has refused to grant me relief and posted my matter for January 22. I may be arrested, if no protection is granted to me," senior advocate PS Patwalia, appearing for Mr. Pramanik, told the bench during the brief hearing.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the West Bengal government, said 13 cases of attempt to murder and rioting are pending against Mr. Pramanik and he could have been arrested long back.
Sankaranarayanan assured the bench that no coercive action will be taken against Pramanik and, instead of rushing to the apex court, he could have easily mentioned the matter in the court of the chief justice of Calcutta HC and got it listed before January 22.
Mr. Patwalia said, being a union minister, Mr. Pramanik should get some protection till January 22.
The bench, while granting protection to him, said it has not expressed any opinion on the merit of the case.
It directed the high court to hear the matter on January 22 and dispose of his petition as expeditiously as possible.
On Thursday, the top court had agreed to hear Mr. Pramanik's plea seeking anticipatory bail in the case and issued notice to the West Bengal government.
Mr. Pramanik had moved the apex court challenging the January 4 order of the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench of the high court by which it had refused to grant him anticipatory bail in the case.
An attempt to murder case was registered against Mr. Pramanik with Dinhata police station of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal in 2018, when a group of people had opened fire on Trinamool Congress workers, causing injury to one person.
Mr. Pramanik, who was earlier with the TMC, joined the BJP in February 2019. He had refuted the allegation of orchestrating the violence.
He had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Cooch Behar on a BJP ticket and won.
