Trinamool Congress criticises judge who gave protection to Suvendu Adhikari against FIRs

Kolkata, Dec 15 Senior Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh on Thursday criticised Calcutta High Court Judge Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, who gave protection to the Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari against FIRs.

Ghosh, who is Trinamool Congress's state general secretary and the party spokesman, alleged that because of the protection provided by Justice Mantha, the leader of the opposition has become reckless.

"I have full respect towards the judicial system. But the manner in which Justice Mantha gave Suvendu Adhikari protection and immunity from all past and future FIRs was undemocratic and biased. This made Suvendu Adhikari reckless as was evident from the stampede at his blanket distribution programme at Asansol on Wednesday evening that killed three persons. Justice Mantha will have to take responsibility for the tragedy," Ghosh said.

On December 8 this year, Justice Mantha had put a stay on all the past 26 FIRs filed against Adhikari at different police stations in the state. At the same time, he had also barred the state police from filing any fresh FIR against the leader of the opposition without prior approval of the court.

Ghosh said the police should register cases against Adhikari and all the organisers of the blanket distribution programme.

Earlier, Ghosh had claimed that Adhikari always prefers to approach the bench of Justice Mantha in any legal matter.

"I hope that in future, Justice Mantha will review his decisions on this count, I am not criticising the judicial system. I am just raising objections about certain decisions of a judge in a particular matter," he said.

This is not the first time that Ghosh has criticised any judge.

Earlier, Ghosh had criticised Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court when the latter said that he might advise the Election Commission of India to cancel the recognition of Trinamool Congress as a political party.

At that time, Ghosh had alleged that Justice Gangopadhyay was trying to project his Phantom image to pave the way for his post-retirement political life.

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