CBI counters Bimal Gurung plea said no HC only CBI courts could hear cases

The CBI today filed an affidavit claiming the high court had no jurisdiction over the petitions by Bimal Gurung and 22 others of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha seeking anticipatory bail in the Madan Tamang murder case.

Justice Asim Kumar Roy, a senior judge of the division bench, asked Gurung's counsel to file an affidavit-in-opposition within 10 days and fixed the matter for hearing on August 28.

The stay on the arrest of Gurung and the others would continue till the hearing is over.

Gurung and 22 others had been accused in the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League president Madan Tamang's murder case and on May 29, a city-based CBI court had asked them to surrender before it.

To avoid the summons, Gurung and 22 others had moved anticipatory bail pleas before the division bench of Calcutta High Court.

Today, the CBI affidavit was produced before the division bench of Justice Asim Kumar Roy and Justice Moloy Marud Banerjee.

The CBI special counsel Manindra Singh claimed that since the investigating agency had filed a fresh chargesheet naming Gurung and the others in response to a Supreme Court order, only CBI courts could hear the cases.

"The Supreme Court had directed my client to conduct a fresh inquiry into the Tamang murder case and file a comprehensive report before it. So, the apex court is monitoring the case. My client had already produced the comprehensive report at the Supreme Court and in the same time, submitted the chargesheet to the CBI court," Singh told the high court division bench today.

"Since the CBI court had issued the summons asking the accused persons to surrender before it, the accused would have to obey the order. The high court cannot entertain their anticipatory bail pleas at this stage," he added.

Senior advocate Sekhar Bose, the counsel appearing for the 23 accused, opposed Singh's plea saying they had every right to move anticipatory bail pleas before the high court.

Justice Roy then asked Bose to file an affidavit-in-opposition within 10 days. The next date of hearing is August 28.

The Telegraph