Madan hearing

TT, Calcutta, July 2: Calcutta High Court today adjourned for four weeks the hearing on the anticipatory bail petitions moved by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung and 22 other leaders and activists of the party accused in the Madan Tamang murder case.

The case was adjourned following a prayer from the CBI, which is investigating the case.

"The CBI informed the court that it wants to engage a special lawyer in the case. For the sake of fair justice, this court is granting the prayer and adjourning the hearing for four weeks. The case will come up for hearing on July 29," the division bench of Justices Ashim Kumar Roy and Moloy Marut Banerjee said in the brief order.

The CBI produced the original case diary today in response to yesterday's order by the bench.

Although the case was supposed to be heard at 2pm, it started at 4.25pm, five minutes before the end of court hours, because of a number of pending criminal cases.

The bench had yesterday said it would get the case diary photocopied at the high court as the CBI had said the photocopier at its office in Salt Lake's CGO Complex was out of order. But seeing the volume of the document, the court asked the CBI to submit the photocopies on the next date of hearing.

During today's hearing, Justice Roy, the bench's senior judge, asked CBI counsel Ashraf Ali: "Please tell me whether your client had tried to arrest Bimal Gurung and the other accused persons during the course of the investigation. Now, why do you want to see them arrested?"

In reply, the CBI counsel said the special lawyers, who would hold the brief of this case in the future, would reply to the judge's queries.

Amitesh Banerjee, the counsel appearing for Tamang's widow, Bharati, alleged before the court that the petitioners (Gurung and the others) were regularly threatening his client and other witnesses.

"Unless the petitioners are taken into custody, a fair trial of the case is impossible," he said.

Justice Roy asked Banerjee to file an affidavit within a week, stating details about his client's allegations against the accused persons.