Kolkata, February 27 – The Calcutta High Court, on Friday, sought a report from the Kolkata Police regarding the alleged heckling of the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, by a group of booth-level officers (BLOs) in front of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, directed the state police to submit a report on the matter by March 5, acting on a petition filed by Adhikari, accusing the city police personnel of failing to prevent the BLOs from heckling him at the gate of the CEO's office on Tuesday.
The division bench also directed the Kolkata Police to inform the court about the actions taken against the concerned BLOs.
The division bench directed the city police to submit a detailed report on the matter to the court by March 5, the date of the next hearing in the matter.
On Tuesday, tensions erupted outside the CEO's office in central Kolkata when protesting BLOs gathered at the location during Adhikari's visit to submit a deputation. Some of them were even seen throwing their shoes at the leader of the opposition.
Following the incident, Adhikari made strong remarks criticizing the protesting BLOs and expressed his displeasure over the conduct of those involved in the demonstration.
It may be recalled that a public interest litigation (PIL) concerning the security of the Leader of the Opposition is already pending before the bench of the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
The PIL has sought directions to ensure that political workers and supporters do not come close to the Leader of the Opposition during public programmes or official engagements in order to prevent security breaches.
In addition to the pending PIL, the fresh petition filed by Adhikari raises specific concerns regarding the recent protest incident and alleged lapses in security arrangements.
Earlier, Adhikari had also approached the Calcutta High Court after his convoy was allegedly attacked by miscreants in Chandrakona in West Midnapore district.
In that matter, Adhikari informed the Court that "instead of taking action against the attackers, the police had registered a case against him".
Subsequently, Justice Suvra Ghosh had passed an interim order restraining the authorities from taking any coercive action against Suvendu Adhikari in connection with that case.
