The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to Congress leader Milan Pradhan to enable him to contest the upcoming Nandigram bypolls.

Pradhan has been in custody in connection with six cases relating to the 2007 Nandigram violence.

Justice Tirthankar Ghosh today ordered that Pradhan be released on interim bail till October 20 provided he furnishes a bond of ₹20,000 along with two sureties of ₹10,000 each.

"I am of the opinion that petitioner may be granted an opportunity to contest the election and to that effect he may be released on interim bail," the Court said.

The direction was part of separate orders passed on six bail pleas filed by Pradhan in connection with his arrest in six criminal cases from 2007, which involved allegations of rioting and murder.

In his petitions, Pradhan questioned the timing of his arrest, given that the cases against him were from nearly two decades ago. His counsel pointed out that the police waited till after Pradhan filed his nomination papers for the Nandigram bypolls to execute arrest warrants for the first time in 19 years.

This was one of the factors taken note of by the High Court while granting Pradhan interim bail.

"The police authorities ... had opportunities to execute the processes in these cases, which are more than 19 years old," it recorded.

Another aspect factored in was the nature of the criminal cases in connection with which Pradhan was arrested. The Court noted that these were criminal cases arising out of Pradhan's participation as a prominent political leader in the Nandigram anti-land acquisition protests, which were meant to protect the rights of farmers.

"The events at Nandigram form part of the history of West Bengal, particularly the farmers’ struggle to protect the land acquisition to which they were deeply attached... The petitioner is a political activist who was associated with the land movement at Nandigram in 2007. His political involvement is also evident from his participation in the present election as the candidate of a political party."

The Court also noted that the Supreme Court had called for a holistic approach in matters of interim bail in its 2024 order granting AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal interim bail in the Delhi excise policy case.

"The Hon’ble Supreme Court’s observation in Arvind Kejriwal (supra) that a holistic approach must be adopted applies to the present petitioner as well," the High Court said.

Senior Advocate Milon Mukherjee and advocates Sanjay Banerjee, Zohaib Rauf, Ajitesh Pandey, Sriparna Das, Sk. Anwar Ali, Jayanta Narayan Das, S Ghosh, Prasant Bagchi, Sumitra Neogi, Abid Jamal, Manojit Bhattacharya, Anjana Banaejee, Srabani Mukhopadhyay, Samirul Sardar, Mrinmoy Bhattacharyya, Abhi Bhattacharya, Arka Chakrabotry, Anish Mukherjee, Kundan Bharti, Manish Ojha and Asfak Ahammed represented Pradhan.

Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar, Public Prosecutor Kallol Mondal and advocates Moyukh Mukherjee and Arushi Rathore represented the State.

Pradhan has also separately filed a writ petition before the High Court seeking interim protection from future arrests in similar cases from 2007, ahead of the bypolls.

In the said plea, he had pointed out that his September 18 arrest in five such cases came soon after former Chief Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee backed him as a candidate for the Nandigram bypolls, which is slated to be held on October 6. 

More recently, the Court had pulled up the State for arresting Pradhan in a sixth such case, days after it had submitted that Pradhan's arrest was not warranted in any more cases from 2007. The Court proceeded to direct the State not to take any more coercive steps against Pradhan in connection with this case, adding that he should not be treated as arrested either in the said case.

The Nandigram bypolls are scheduled for October 6. They were necessitated after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and incumbent West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendhu Adhikari vacated his seat in Nandigram, which he won alongside the Bhabanipur constituency seat in the State Assembly elections. Adhikari chose to retain the Bhabhinapur seat and vacated the Nandigram seat.

[Read Interim Bail Orders]