The Calcutta high court on Thursday orally observed that the West Bengal government should allow Congress candidate Milan Pradhan to contest the Nandigram by-election scheduled for October 6, despite his judicial custody in multiple 2007 cases.
Milan Pradhan, the candidate, was arrested on September 18 in connection with a 2007 murder case and later shown arrested in five other cases, all registered in the same year. Earlier this week, two lower courts at Contai and Haldia in East Midnapore sent him to judicial custody till October 7. With the by-election scheduled on October 6, Pradhan will not be able to campaign if he is denied bail. The court also said that he should be not treated as arrested in one case (registered in Khejuri police station in 2007), as it was not flagged during the last hearing on September 22,” said Ajitesh Pandey, advocate representing Pradhan. The court also directed the state police not to take any coercive steps against Pradhan in the particular case till October 12. The bench also expressed its surprise that even though all the cases were registered in 2007, the police showed him arrested in 2026. Mazumder informed the court that even though the cases were registered against Pradhan in 2007, the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government withdrew all the cases in 2020. The cases were reinstated in 2021 after a PIL was filed in the Calcutta high court flagging that those were murder cases. In all, 11 cases were registered against Pradhan at the Nandigram and Khejuri police stations in 2007.
To be sure, the arrest and judicial custody don’t disqualify Pradhan from contesting the by-poll. “The bench observed that Pradhan be allowed to campaign and contest the by-poll. Five of them were murder cases. “We have filed bail petitions in four cases.
“Allow him to contest,” the bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya said while addressing Rajdeep Majumder, additional advocate general representing the state government. “It is surprising that even though the criminal prosecution is of 2007, the police made a prayer for treating the petitioner (Pradhan) as shown arrest before the court in 2026,” the bench stated. “What was the IO doing between 2021 and September 2026,” the court questioned.
The bail plea in the fifth case will be filed on Friday. The petitions are likely to be heard on Friday,” said Pandey.
