The Calcutta high court on Tuesday granted interim bail to Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for the Nandigram bypolls, till October 20. Pradhan, who has been in judicial custody since his arrest on September 18 in murder cases dating to 2007, will now be able to campaign for the bypoll, his lawyers said.
The Congress had moved the Calcutta high court alleging discrepancies in the affidavit Rath submitted while filing her nomination. Pradhan was arrested on September 18 in a 2007 murder case and later 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. A bench of justice Saugata Bhattacharyya had also expressed surprise that even though all the cases were registered in 2007, the police arrested him in 2026. she also said that she passed the Class X board exam in 1965 While Rath said her age was 60.
The Calcutta high court had earlier said that Pradhan must be allowed to contest the Nandigram bypolls properly provided he gets bail in the cases in which he was arrested. “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 had earlier stated.
