Blow to Giri, as SC refuses to transfer trial from Kolkata

M P |  17 Aug 2017| New Delhi: In a big blow to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) general secretary Roshan Giri, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to transfer the trial in the Madan Tamang murder case of 2010 from Kolkata to Sikkim but ordered that the proceedings should be conducted through video conferencing from Darjeeling. 

A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said that Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) general secretary Roshan Giri, who is an accused in the case and had moved the apex court seeking transfer of trial from Kolkata to Sikkim, does not represent all the persons facing trial in the matter. 

The police have claimed that Tamang, who was the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) president, was hacked to death in Darjeeling on May 21, 2010, in broad daylight when he was overseeing preparations for a public meeting. The apex court asked the lower court in Kolkata, where the case is pending, to hold the trial "mainly through video conferencing" for which the appropriate facility should be set up at Kolkata and Darjeeling respectively.

Giri had approached the apex court seeking transfer of trial in the case, claiming that if he was to appear in court at Kolkata to face the murder trial, then there would be a serious law and order situation in Kolkata which might pose a threat to his life. Giri has been charged with alleged "criminal conspiracy for murder", along with several other GJM leaders, in the murder case of Tamang. CBI has indicted the entire top leadership of the GJM for the murder of the AIGL president. Besides Giri, GJM president Bimal Gurung is among the nine top leaders named in the charge sheet. Gurung, his wife Asha and several senior leaders of the hill outfit had surrendered before a trial court which granted them bail in the murder case.