Gurung bail: SC to look at legal issues only .... We cannot go into it politically. We have to see the legal issues. .....SC cannot say anything on issues Gurung has raised politically- SC

TNN | Nov 29, 2017, KOLKATA: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will only examine the legal issues in Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung's anticipatory bail plea and not the political allegations.

A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said: "We cannot go into it politically. We have to see the legal issues. We cannot say anything on issues Gurung has raised politically."

Attorney general K K Venugopal told the bench that the Centre will follow the order passed by the apex court in the matter. The court has posted the case for hearing again on November 30.

For Bengal, senior counsel A M Singhvi told the bench that Gurung was facing trial in 23 cases and several other criminal cases were also registered against him.

He claimed that various serious incidents had taken place under Gurung's leadership and a 26-year-old police official was also killed during the recent Gorkhaland agitation. "Gurung's defence is that these cases are false and sham. There are so many cases. Fifty-three FIRs cannot be sham," he said.

Senior advocate P S Patwalia, appearing for Gurung, countered the submissions and said 104 FIRs have been lodged against Gurung and other GJM members by the West Bengal Police and the state government had made him a fugitive.

"He fears for his life. The West Bengal government has made him a fugitive," he claimed and added that Gurung was seeking transfer of probe in these cases to other independent agencies like the CBI or the NIA.

"Gurung was accorded Cabinet status and was provided police secutiry. Can a person having a cabinet status do all this violence and abscond?" Patwalia asked, adding that the GJM had opposed the state government's move to make Bengali language mandatory in the Hills and some parts of Terai and Dooars.

He said false cases were lodged without there being any complainants against Gurung and other GJM leaders to "pressurise and threaten" them and this was done to "quell the movement".

(Shared by Kalimpong News from The Times of India: Courtesy and Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/gurung-bail-sc-to-look-at-legal-issues-only/articleshow/61841856.cms)