Sikkim court rejects plea for GJM leader’s remand

Chewan K Dahal | TNN | Sep 5, 2017, GANGTOK: The legal tussle between Sikkim and Bengal over the transit remand of former Gorkha Territorial Administration sabhasad and GJM leader Sabitri Rai reached a new high on Monday after a Namchi court denied Bengal's transit remand plea and granted bail to Rai.

The West Bengal Police now plans to challenge this Sikkim court order in the Calcutta high court.

Bengal police had written to the Sikkim government, informing it that a team would go there to seek Rai's transit remand. Lawyers Atri Deo Sharma and Subhajit Bhattacharjee argued for the CID at the district session court at Namchi.

The court observed that Rai was not arrested in presence of female police personnel and it was still unclear whether the Bengal CID had informed the local police prior to the arrest. Special superintendent of police (North), CID, Ajay Prasad had written to the South Sikkim SP on August 3, seeking "assistance for conducting raid".

However, the state CID couldn't produce the arrest warrant from the competent court to arrest Rai outside their local jurisdiction. The FIR did not show any involvement of the petitioner in commission of the alleged offence, the court observed. The state CID badly wanted to take Rai in custody and get leads about GJM president Bimal Gurung now hiding in Sikkim.

The Namchi court also took exception to the death of Dawa Bhutia in the shooting allegedly involving Kalimpong SP and his team. The court maintained that the death of a person within Sikkim's boundaries following an action by the West Bengal Police couldn't be taken lightly. The Sikkim Police also lodged a suo motu FIR against the Kalimpong SP soon after the incident.

The GJM MLA from Kalimpong, Sarita Rai, added fuel to the wrangling match, demanding a high-level inquiry into the shooting. "We want a high-level committee to investigate the case and want the committee to provide justice to the family of deceased Dawa Bhutia at the earliest," the Kalimpong MLA said.