The additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranaghat has issued an arrest warrant against Mukul Roy for failing to appear before it personally as it had directed in connection with the murder of Trinamul MLA Satyajit Biswas in 2019.

Roy, who left Trinamul to join the BJP and rejoined Trinamul recently, was with the saffron party at the time of Biswas’s murder on February 9, 2020.

The arrest warrant signed by the ACJM Protyai Chowdhury was served on Thursday with the directive to execute it by September 27. The ACJM court twice directed Roy to come in person, the last on August 16. He did not, which prompted the arrest warrant.

“It’s a legal course and none can avoid it. Roy should have appeared before court to surrender, complying with the ACJM's direction and appeal for bail,” a Trinamul leader in Nadia said.

Roy’s lawyer Suman Kumar Roy said they came to know about the arrest warrant today (Thursday). “It is a bailable warrant. I will talk to my client and decide on the future course of action.

Krishnaganj MLA Biswas was shot near his home on February 9, 2019. Five persons including Roy, who was a BJP leader then, were named in the FIR lodged by MLA’s close friend and party activist Milan Ghosh. The CID in a supplementary charge sheet filed on December 5, 2020 had accused Roy of conspiracy and murder of the Trinamul MLA. To avoid the arrest Roy had appealed to the Calcutta High Court for bail. The court had granted him protection for four months, directing him to co-operate with the investigating agency. The protection extended a number of times amid the Covid situation.