Today, the Calcutta High Court intervened by issuing a stay order on the first information report (FIR) filed by the West Bengal police against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who previously served as a judge and is currently affiliated with the BJP. The FIR accused him of assaulting teachers who were protesting.

Considering the contents of the complaint letter addressed to the Inspector-in-charge of Tamluk police station, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, a single-judge, highlighted that the accusations against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay mentioned in the FIR primarily pertained to abetment.

Additionally, the judge cited a recent Supreme Court ruling granting interim bail to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, who had campaigned during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The High Court observed that the Supreme Court, in the Kejriwal case, had considered the magnitude of the general elections to the Lok Sabha, which involve the participation of 650-700 million voters in selecting the country's government for the subsequent five years.

The single-judge granted a stay on the FIR and all related proceedings against Gangopadhyay, as well as the BJP general secretary of the Tamluk constituency, until June 14.

The State was directed to submit its affidavit in opposition to the plea by June 12, which is when the next hearing for the matter is scheduled. The FIR against Gangopadhyay, accused of assaulting dismissed school employees at their protest site, had been lodged by the State police.

Gangopadhyay faced charges of attempted murder and other offenses under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) following a complaint lodged by certain teaching and non-teaching staff members who had lost their jobs due to a ruling from the Calcutta High Court in the school jobs for cash scam case.

The altercation reportedly occurred on May 4, during a rally led by Gangopadhyay and his party colleague Suvendu Adhikari, prior to submitting nomination papers for the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat. Allegedly, during the rally, some BJP supporters assaulted protesting teachers who had lost their jobs following a ruling by the High Court.

On May 14, Justice Jay Sengupta recused himself from hearing the plea filed by the former judge, citing a close personal acquaintance with Justice Gangopadhyay. Consequently, he directed the matter to be presented before Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, who then assigned it to the bench headed by Justice Ghosh.

During the mention of the case on May 13, Gangopadhyay's counsel, advocate Rajdeep Majumdar, asserted that the first information report (FIR) was politically motivated. He claimed that it was an attempt to hinder Gangopadhyay's participation in campaigning for the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The plea, in addition to seeking the quashing of the FIR, also requests directions to establish a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the matter. On May 14, another judge, Justice Jay Sengupta, excused himself from hearing the plea filed by the former judge, citing a close personal relationship with Justice Gangopadhyay.

As a result, he directed that the case be transferred to Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, who then assigned it to the bench led by Justice Ghosh.

Advocates Rajdeep Mazumder, Billawadal Bhattacharyya, Moyukh Mukherjee, Pritam Roy, Anish Kr. Mukherjee, S Bhattacharjee, Sagnika Banerjee, Aishwaryya Bazaz and Triparna Roy appeared for the Petitioner.

Advocate General Kishore Dutta and Senior Standing Counsel Amitesh Banerjee along with Advocates Sirsanya Bandopadhyay, Rudrajit Sarkar and RK Ganguly represented the Stated.