Tripura HC rejects CPM leader's bail plea in PWD scam

 In a setback to the Left, the Tripura High Court here on Thursday rejected veteran CPI-M leader Badal Choudhury's bail plea in a corruption case.

After the rejection of bail plea, the police is likely to interrogate Choudhury who was detained on October 21 in connection with the case.

Choudhury, a CPI-M central committee member, had moved the high court on October 18 after West Tripura district and sessions court Judge Sabyasachi Datta Purkayastha on October 16 rejected the anticipatory bail petition of the eight-term sitting MLA and former Lok Sabha member.

The CPI-M and the Congress alleged in the name of interrogation, the police picked up the ailing leader from a hospital, shifted him to West Agartala police station and manhandled him.

The CPI-M politburo on Thursday condemned the "cruel manner in which the police treated Choudhury. He was under treatment at a private hospital when the police removed him from there and kept him in a lockup".

Within minutes, of police action he fell ill with chest pain and breathing difficulty. The government doctors advised that he be shifted to a hospital and within an hour. He was again taken to the government hospital and admitted in the intensive care unit, the CPI-M statement said.

Calling the action "barbaric and unprecedented", senior Congress leader Gopal Roy said on Thursday his party was not against the probe into the reported corruption cases, but the police high-handedness towards an ailing leader was intolerable.

According to Law and Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, the Public Works Department under the Left Front government in 2008-09 clubbed 13 projects -- five bridges, five buildings and three road projects -- implemented at Rs 638 crore.

Terming it the "biggest scam in the history of Tripura", Nath said Rs 228 crore had been siphoned off.

CPI-M leaders said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had hatched a conspiracy against Choudhury to malign the earlier government (1993 -2018) and get political mileage.

CPI-M state secretary Gautam Das said the party would fight the "political vendetta" both legally and politically.

The Tripura Police's vigilance wing on October 13 filed an FIR against Choudhury, former Principal Secretary (PWD) Y.P. Singh and ex-PWD Chief Engineer Sunil Bhowmik in connection with corruption in the Rs 638 crore projects.

Bhowmik was arrested on October 14. The police said it was taking steps to arrest Y.P. Singh. IANS