The Calcutta High Court has once again dismissed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) West Bengal unit’s request to hold protest demonstrations outside the state Secretariat ‘Nabanna’ against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s alleged interference in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids on the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). The division bench, led by Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, upheld the single-judge bench’s decision that had previously rejected the BJP’s plea.
Earlier, on January 15, Justice Suvra Ghosh of the single-judge bench had denied the party’s request, prompting the BJP leadership to escalate the matter to the division bench. Despite this, the division bench advised the BJP’s state unit to hold the protest at an alternative location near Mandirtala Crossing, as suggested by Justice Ghosh earlier.
Justice Ghosh had specified the time frame for the protest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and prohibited the use of a microphone during the demonstration. The BJP’s state unit had planned the protest in front of the state Secretariat in Mandirtala, Howrah district, but due to the high-security nature of the Nabanna area, special permission is required for protests there.
During simultaneous raids at I-PAC’s office and co-founder Pratik Jain’s residence on January 8, Chief Minister Banerjee, accompanied by state officials and police, visited the locations and reportedly seized paper files and electronic documents.
The state BJP unit’s attempt to seek permission for the protest at the high-security Nabanna area through the Calcutta High Court has been unsuccessful.
