The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Trinamul Congress leader Sheikh Sufiyan, who was the chief polling agent of Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in the Assembly polls, in connection with alleged murder of BJP supporter Debabrata Maiti in May last year.

A bench of Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Abhay S. Oka granted relief to the Trinamul leader but imposed several conditions for Sufiyan as it rejected the CBI’s plea that his custodial interrogation was necessary and grant of bail would lead to intimidation of witnesses and destruction of evidence.

“Considering the peculiar facts of the case, we are of the view that the appellant deserves to be granted pre-arrest bail. However, the appellant will have to fully cooperate with the respondent-CBI for investigation and will have to remain present for investigation as and when called upon by the investigating officer,” said the bench.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Sufiyan in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court passed the order while allowing Sufiyan’s appeal challenging Calcutta High Court’s refusal to grant him anticipatory bail in the case.

Maity, who had suffered injuries on May 3, 2021, in an alleged mob attack at Chillogram in Nandigram and died on May 13.

The CBI had taken over the investigation on August 30, 2021.

Dev summoned

The CBI has summoned Trinamul’s Ghatal MP and actor Deepak Adhikari, popularly known as Dev, in connection with the probe into alleged cattle smuggling. Sources said Dev had been asked to appear at the CBI’s Nizam Palace office in Calcutta on February 15.

Sleuths said they wanted to question the MP about his alleged links with Enamul Haque, one of the key accused in the case.