Calcutta HC allows central fact-finding team, LoP to visit Sandeshkhali

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, while acting on two separate petitions, permitted the central fact-finding team and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, to visit Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas District. However, the court gave the nod with a few riders.

In the first case, the single-judge Bench of Justice Kausik Chanda while allowing the central fact-finding team to visit the trouble-hit area restricted its movement to only those spots in Sandeshkhali where prohibitory orders under Section 144 were not in place.

In the hearing on a separate petition, Justice Kausik Chanda allowed Suvendu Adhikari and BJP legislator Shankar Ghosh to visit Sandeshkhali, but directed the LoP to give an undertaking to the local police station stating that he would ensure that there would not be any fresh tension over his visit.

The Bench directed that the LoP would not be allowed to make any provocative statements in Sandeshkhali.

It is learnt that Adhikari and Ghosh will go to Sandeshkhali on Thursday.

While the Trinamool Congress has remained silent on the two orders so far, state BJP leaders said that the state government has made a habit of first refusing permission to Opposition parties to go to any place and then getting humiliated by court orders that go against it.