New Delhi: The Supreme Court granted Friday interim protection to five BJP leaders. These include Mukul Roy and MPs Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arjun Singh. Criminal cases have been lodged against them in West Bengal. The Supreme Court directed the West Bengal police not to take any coercive action against the BJP leaders.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul sought response from the West Bengal government on five separate pleas. The please filed by the BJP leaders allege that criminal cases are being made against them to deter them from political activities. The apex court said interim protection from coercive action will continue till the next date of hearing.
The bench posted the batch of pleas for further hearing in the second week of January. Besides Roy, Vijayvargiya and Singh, two other BJP leaders Sourav Singh and Pawan Kumar Singh have moved the apex court for protection in cases lodged against them in West Bengal.
While granting protection to these five leaders, the bench directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to submit in a sealed cover a report regarding alleged scuffle between TMC workers and security staff of West Bengal BJP leader Kabir Shankar Bose, who has filed a separate plea in the apex court.