Coal Smuggling Case: Calcutta High Court issues contempt notice against prison super

Kolkata: A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Friday issued a contempt of court notice against Debasish Chakraborty, the superintendent of Presidency Central Correctional Home in Kolkata, for violating the court's order for periodical medical examination of a prime accused in the coal smuggling case who is currently lodged in the prison.

Bikash Mishra, the first person to be arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the coal smuggling scam in April last year, is currently housed at the correctional home. He is the younger brother of Trinamool Congress youth leader and another prime accused in the case, Binoy Mishra, who is currently absconding and is believed to have taken shelter at Vanuatu Islands.

The CBI had informed the Calcutta High Court that Bikash Mishra had been frequently avoiding integration on medical grounds. On August 29, the Calcutta High Court ordered that a medical officer designated by CBI should visit the correctional home at an interval of 48 hours to medically examine Bikash Mishra.

On August 31, the CBI-designated medical officer visited the correctional home, medically examined Bikash Mishra and informed the court that the accused was medically fit to face interrogation.

However, on Friday, the CBI counsel informed the Calcutta High Court's division bench of justices Jormalya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta that when the same medical officer went to the correctional home again on September 3 to examine Bikash Mishra, superintendent Debasish Chakraborty sent him back, saying that the medical examination of the accused has already been done.

The division bench took a strong note of such an approach on the part of Chakraborty and issued a contempt of court notice against him. Chakraborty will have to personally appear before the bench on September 22 and explain his action.