A vacation bench of Calcutta High Court on Monday restrained police from taking coercive measures against two BJP candidates for the Lok Sabha polls till further orders.

Justice Amrita Sinha issued the interim orders in two separate petitions filed by Rekha Patra and Pranat Tudu, the BJP nominees from Basirhat and Jhargram, respectively. The duo apprehended arrests in connection with allegedly fake FIRs lodged by police against them.

Patra alleged that the police had lodged a fake case against her because she protected her party men from torture by Trinamool Congress supporters during the voting on June 1.

The BJP candidate alleged that instead of accepting her FIR, the police had registered a false case against her intending to arrest her before the election results were declared.

Tudu alleged that “TMC goons” had attacked him with weapons but the police declined to accept his complaint and registered an FIR implicating him in a false case.

BJP leader and high court lawyer Priyanka Tibrewal claimed before Justice Sinha that Section 144 of the Cr PC had been imposed in some areas of Sandeshkhali, which is in the Basirhat Lok Sabha segment. “Some women of the area called me up and complained that they were not being allowed to enter their villages by police,” Tibrewal said while praying for an order to allow her to visit those areas.

Justice Sinha issued an order allowing Tibrewal’s prayer. During the hearing of Tudu’s petition, the lawyer appearing for the government claimed the FIR against the BJP candidate had been registered on the complaints lodged by central forces.