The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday withdrew an interim order protecting Jehangir Khan – the defeated Trinamool Congress candidate from Valta in South 24 Parganas district – from police action in the criminal cases he faces, lawyers who attended the hearing said.
“Judge Partha Sarathi Sen withdrew the interim protection granted to Khan on May 18, days before the Valta elections on May 21, and allowed the state to continue investigations into seven criminal cases registered at the Valta police station,” said a lawyer who requested anonymity.
Khan’s lawyers said the charges were the result of political vendetta following the TMC’s defeat in the assembly elections.
The state’s additional solicitor general, Rajdeep Majumdar, said the protection was only granted to allow Khan to challenge the re-election scheduled for May 21. Majumdar said the police should be allowed to begin investigations since the results were announced on May 24.
Read also:Valtha elections in Bengal: How Trinamul’s Jehangir Khan, who withdrew before the re-poll, got 3.7% of the votes
“Judge Sen observed that Khan cannot be allowed to enjoy legal protection,” the lawyer said.
The Valta Assembly seat has about 225,000 voters, of whom about 165,000 are Hindus.
A re-polling order was issued because a large section of Hindu voters claimed on April 29, the day of the scheduled elections, that Khan and his men prevented them from casting their votes in any elections.
Complaints were registered on charges of arson, assault, criminal intimidation and attempted murder.
Khan’s brother-in-law was arrested days before the resurvey on the charges, but Khan was not arrested under an interim court order.
Khan, who sparked controversy in the Transitional Military Council by announcing his withdrawal from the race 48 hours before the re-poll, had disappeared when the results were announced on May 24. His house in Valta was found locked.
The BJP swept the re-poll by a record margin of 109,021 votes, the highest among all 294 seats in Bengal. The Military Council came in fourth place with only 7,783 votes, losing its electoral deposit for the first time since 2011, when it topped the Left Front government and began its rule for three terms.
At the end of the counting process, BJP candidate Dibangshu Panda received 149,666 votes. Communist Party of India candidate Sambo Nath Karmi and Congress Party candidate Abdul Razzaq Molla came in second and third place in the race, obtaining 40,645 and 10,084 votes, respectively.
