Supreme Court denies anticipatory bail to Abhishek Banerjee aide in land grab case

The Supreme Court has turned down anticipatory bail for Sumit Roy, who serves as personal assistant to Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, in a land grab investigation linked to Salboni.

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant chose not to interfere with the Calcutta High Court's August order that had already denied pre-arrest protection to Roy.

Custodial interrogation sought

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the West Bengal government, told the court that Roy's responses during questioning had been evasive and that custodial interrogation was essential to move the investigation forward.

The case involves penal provisions for cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy. Mehta alleged that Roy had deposited approximately ₹15 crore through multiple transactions.

Defence claims lack of evidence

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Roy, argued that not a single piece of evidence directly implicated his client. He informed the Bench that Roy had already been questioned for approximately 88 hours but was never confronted with documents or witnesses that directly connected him to the alleged transactions.

Sankaranarayanan contended that the investigating agency was attempting to establish a link between the TMC's banking transactions and Roy's personal account. He added that even other accused in the case had denied Roy's involvement when questioned by the investigating agency.

The Supreme Court, however, remained unconvinced by the defence arguments and declined to grant relief.

Source: The Hindu