Six men who were accused of assaulting an assistant commissioner of Kolkata police during the BJP’s Nabanna Abhiyan on September 13 were released on bail on Tuesday.
The bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta of Calcutta High Court granted the six bail last week.
The bench said in its order issued last Friday that the “photographs downloaded from the video footage do not show the role of any of the petitioners apart from petitioner number five, in the assault of the police officer, who is still undergoing treatment”.
Debjit Chatterjee, an assistant commissioner of police, was chased by a mob and attacked with lathis while he was on duty in central Kolkata during the Nabanna Abhiyan. He suffered multiple injuries.
Photographs and video footage had emerged showing Chatterjee being chased by men holding lathis, grabbed by the collar by at least one of the men and prevented from fleeing.
Nine persons had been arrested in connection with the attack on the officer. Two of the accused had earlier been granted bail, while six more were released from jail on Tuesday.
The court had last Friday said that it was of the opinion that further detention of the accused, except accused number five, was not necessary.
Accused number five is Rajkumar Maity, 68, a resident of Dum Dum, who had allegedly shaved his head and sacrificed his moustache to prevent his arrest after videos of violence and protests during the Nabanna Abhiyan showing a man resembling him became viral. Maity was arrested a few days later.
The six men who were released on bail on Tuesday were Ravikant Singh, Sahil Roy, Bikash Ghosh, Raja Biswas, Ganesh Baule and Ashim Deb. All six were granted bail against a bail bond of Rs 10,000 and directed to be present in court during the trial.
Poonam Singh, wife of Ravikant Singh, who is a lawyer and BJP activist, told The Telegraph on Tuesday that her husband had been in police and judicial remand for more than 80 days.
“The footage clearly showed my husband tried to save the police officer. He might have been holding a lathi but not a single footage showed him hitting the officer. The judge made the same observation, that the photographs and video footage submitted by the prosecution do not show any direct involvement of the six men in the assault on the officer,” said Poonam.
All the accused have been charged under IPC sections related to rioting, attempt to murder, causing grievous hurt, deterring public servants from discharge of duty and common intention.