SC grants anticipatory bail to Mamata's poll agent Supiyan in murder case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader S K Supiyan, who was the election agent of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram during last year's assembly elections, in a murder case.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Abhay S Oka, however, imposed several conditions while granting the relief to Supiyan.

The apex court noted that the incident is of May 3, 2021 and though two charge sheets have been filed on 5th October 2021 and 9th January 2022, Supiyan has not been named as an accused therein.

It also took note of the fact that the appellant was not named in both the charge sheets filed thereafter.

Considering the peculiar facts of the case, we are of the view that the appellant deserves to be granted pre-arrest bail. However, the appellant will have to fully cooperate with the respondent-CBI for investigation and will have to remain present for investigation as and when called upon by the investigating officer, the bench said.

It added: We make it clear that the pre-arrest bail granted to the appellant is liable to be cancelled if it is found that the appellant is not cooperating for the investigation. We further make it clear that we have not made any adjudication on the merits of the controversy.

The top court on February 4 had reserved its order when the CBI had said that Supiyan has been running away from the investigation in the murder case of a BJP worker being probed by it.

The CBI took over the investigation of the case on August 30, 2021.

The CBI is probing the death of BJP worker Debabrata Maity, who was allegedly attacked in Nandigram.

The high court had directed the probe agency to investigate post-poll violence cases in the state.