Gurung bail plea moved, cops pick up 2 GJM men

Policemen detain a GJM activist, Yogendra Pradhan, at Bagdogra airport on Thursday.   | Photo Credit: AFP AFP

Deep Gazmer and Pinak Priya Bhattacharya TNN | 4 April 2019 | Siliguri/Darjeeling: Two GJM leaders were picked up by Darjeeling police as soon as they landed at Bagdogra airport on Thursday with the intent of filing an anticipatory bail petition in the Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri circuit bench for Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri.

A day earlier, the Supreme Court had disposed of a plea by Gurung, Giri and others seeking a directive to the West Bengal government not to arrest them until the polls got over, by telling them to approach the HC within four days for anticipatory bail.

As soon as GJM (Gurung faction)’s central committee members Rohan Rai and Yogendra Pradhan landed around 2pm on a flight from New Delhi, they were taken away by Darjeeling range IG Manoj Verma and his team. Verma refused to speak to media.

A Gurung aide, Puran Tamang, however, moved an anticipatory bail plea in the division bench of Justices Dipankar Dutta and Sivakant Prasad on behalf of himself and others, including Gurung. Tamang is wanted in a case dating from September 4, 2017 when 390gm of power gel explosives were allegedly found in his house. The bench is likely to hear the petition in April third week.

Reacting to the police action, Gurung faction spokesman B P Bajgain said: “They were coming with documents that were needed to be filed in the Jalpaiguri circuit bench for Gurung to seek anticipatory bail. We don’t even know if they have been arrested or detained.”

Through the day, emotions waxed and waned in the Hills following Giri’s morning message of a return home till he couldn’t make it. Sources said Gurung had booked two separate flights from Delhi but did not take either, citing security reasons.

Speaking from an undisclosed location, fugitive GJM leader Gurung said their inability to make it to Darjeeling would not make any difference to the election results. He said this election was a fight against the Bengal government’s “dictatorship” and people would stand up against it. Gurung dismissed CM Mamata Banerjee’s claims of considerable development work in the Hills.

GJM president Binay Tamang alleged it was BJP’s “conspiracy” to usher Gurung into the Hills “to create unrest and disturb peace of the Hills. But the Hills public will not accept Gurung and BJP”.