SC to hear Barrackpore BJP candidate's plea seeking bail

The Supreme Court is set to hear Wednesday a plea filed by Barrackpore Lok Sabha candidate Arjun Singh seeking protection from arrest in certain political cases in which he claims to have been implicated by the West Bengal police.

A vacation bench of the apex court headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justice M R Shah will hear the arguments at around 12.30 pm.

Senior lawyer and former Solicitor General Ranjeet Kumar told the court that Singh, a BJP candidate, may be arrested if he enters his parliamentary constituency.

"He fears arrest and is thereby seeking a direction for relief in the cases," Kumar told the bench.

In his plea, Singh said that he wanted to be present at the time of vote count which will begin on Thursday. "I wanted to be present at the time of counting tomorrow," Singh said.

He claimed that the cases registered against him were false and politically motivated.

On Tuesday, BJP's West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed that Singh's life was in danger.

"Chief minister Mamata Banerjee instructed Commissioner of Police, Sunil Chaudhary, to arrest our Barrackpore candidate. His life is in danger. He might get killed in a fake encounter as well," said Vijayvargiya.

Mamata would be responsible if any harm comes to Arjun Singh, Vijayvargiya added.

During the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polling on May 6, Singh had claimed of having been attacked by Trinamool Congress supporters in Barrackpore.

Seven-phased extensive Lok Saha poll exercise came to an end on May 19. The counting of votes for 542 Lok Sabha constituencies will begin on Thursday.

( With inputs from ANI )