The Supreme Court on Friday approved interim protection to five Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Mukul Roy and MPs Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arjun Singh, in criminal cases lodged against them in Bengal.

The top court directed the state police not to take any coercive action against them.

A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul sought response from the Bengal government pertaining to five separate pleas filed by the BJP leaders, alleging that the election-bound state had imposed criminal cases to defer them from political activities. It said that the interim protection from coercive action will continue till the next date of hearing.

The top court posted the batch of pleas for further hearing in the second week of January. Besides Roy, Vijayvargiya and Singh, two other BJP leaders Sourav Singh and Pawan Kumar Singh have moved the apex court for protection in cases lodged against them in the state.

While granting protection to these five leaders, the bench directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to submit in a sealed cover a report regarding alleged scuffle between TMC workers and security staff of Bengal BJP leader Kabir Shankar Bose, who has filed a separate plea in the apex court.

During the hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for petitioner Arjun Singh said that 64 criminal cases have been filed against the BJP leader in 2019 after he had joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaving Trinmul Congress.

“I am an MP and these cases have been filed after I left TMC”, Rohatgi said, adding, “The first case against Arjun Singh was registered on March 24, 2019 after he left the TMC .”

Vijayvargiya's counsel told the bench that the BJP leader is an MP from Madhya Pradesh and false cases have been lodged against him in Bengal.

“I am an MP from Madhya Pradesh and just because I am going to Bengal due to some party works, false cases have been filed against me,” Vijayvargiya's counsel said.

The BJP leaders have also sought investigation by an independent agency into the cases registered against them in Bengal.