NEW DELHI: Calcutta high court on Tuesday granted interim bail to Congress candidate Milan Pradhan to contest the Nandigram bypoll, bar and bench reported.Pradhan was sent to judicial custody until October 7 by a court in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district on Wednesday, in connection with the case. The Additional chief judicial Magistrate of Contai Court had rejected his bail plea after the prosecution sought his custody on murder charges.Pradhan was already in judicial custody until October 5 in a separate Arms Act case. His lawyer, Prasenjit Jana, said he was arraigned on murder and other charges in connection with a case registered during the 2007 Nandigram anti-land acquisition movement.The high court had agreed to hear the Congress candidate’s bail plea on Thursday after the party moved it against his arrest. The development came after Justice Sauagata Bhattacharyya verbally asked the state government on Tuesday to allow Pradhan to contest the bypoll, provided he secured bail in the five criminal cases in which he had been arrested.Pradhan was arrested on September 18, hours after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her faction of the Trinamool Congress would support him in Nandigram. The party’s candidate, Sanchita Pradhan De, had withdrawn from the contest.The following day, Pradhan was sent to judicial custody until October 3 by the Haldia sub-divisional court in connection with four other pending non-bailable arrest warrants linked to cases dating back to 2007.Several criminal cases were registered against Pradhan in 2007 at police stations in Nandigram and Khejuri in Purba Medinipur district.
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During a hearing on his plea seeking protection from coercive action in six other cases, the state government told the high court on Tuesday that five cases had been withdrawn by the previous government and that Pradhan was not wanted in the sixth.The court was also informed that he had been arrested and remanded to judicial custody in connection with the other five cases.The Nandigram bypoll is scheduled for October 6, with campaigning set to conclude on October 4. Counting of votes will take place on October 9.The bypoll was necessitated after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari vacated Nandigram and retained Bhabanipur, from where he had won in the Assembly elections held earlier this year. He had won both seats. The BJP formed its first government in West Bengal, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule.
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