The high court on Wednesday allowed the prayer of Anirul Alam, the owner of the New Town cafe where Trinamool Congress MLA Soham Chakraborty was caught on camera assaulting him, to move the court for protection and a fair probe into the
incident.

The single bench of Justice Amrita Sinha allowed the petition to be filed.

Alam’s counsel told the court on Wednesday that his client and his family members had received phone calls and were threatened. He demanded a fair probe into the
incident.

The advocate sought the court’s permission to move a formal petition seeking protection for Alam.

Justice Sinha, after hearing his submission, allowed the plea to be filed.

“I have been forced to approach the court for protection as Chakraborty is an MLA from the Trinamool Congress and is an influential man. He had threatened to shut my business down. I have received multiple calls where the callers have threatened to beat me up and shut my business down. My entire family is living in fear as there has been little progress in the police investigation,” Alam told Metro on Wednesday.

Later in the day, Alam’s counsel submitted the petition to the court.

According to sources at the high court, the plea is likely to come up for hearing before Justice Sinha on Friday.

Footage from a CCTV camera installed on the cafe’s ground-floor lobby had emerged on Saturday.

The footage showed Chakraborty, an actor and the MLA from Chandipur in East Midnapore, holding Alam by his collar, slapping him and pushing him to the ground. He is then seen dragging Alam out as many other men surround the two.

Chakraborty has also been accused of threatening to shut down Alam’s business.

Chakraborty had claimed that only a part of the CCTV footage is being shown and the portion that captured Alam and others attacking the MLA’s guards and members of the shooting unit had been deleted.

Last week, the Bidhannagar commissionerate issued a notice to Chakraborty under Section 41A of CrPC. Similar notices have also been sent to Alam and the cafe’s manager Dipankar.

Three complaints have been lodged with the Techno City police station.

The cafe’s manager, Dipankar, lodged a complaint against Chakraborty.

Chakraborty also filed a counter-complaint on Saturday night.

The third complaint has been lodged by Alam.

“It is possible that the notices had been served at the cafe. I am yet to see them,” Alam said on Wednesday.

Chakraborty did not respond to calls and a text message from this newspaper.