Bengal opposes bail for Mahato

Calcutta, July 22: The state government today opposed the bail petition of Maoists Prasun Chatterjee and Raja Sarkhel as well as that of Chhatradhar Mahato and Sukhshanti Baske, leaders of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities. All four are in Midnapore jail, booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The government’s move is in line with chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision not to release top Maoists and PCPA leaders till she receives a “positive response” to her appeal for an end to violence in Jungle Mahal and offer for talks, senior officials and Trinamul sources said. The bail petition of veteran Maoist Chandi Sarkar, who is among the 52 undertrial political prisoners whose release the government has announced, was rejected by the court in Krishnagar after the government’s counsel opposed it. “We are yet to give necessary instructions to public prosecutors,’’ law minister Malay Ghatak explained. The additional sessions judge in the Midnapore court rejected the bail petitions of Mahato, produced in court for the first time since Mamata came to power, and the other UAPA undertrials after the government’s counsel opposed it. Their petition for judicial recognition as political prisoners, as the state jail law requires, is pending, their lawyer Mrinal Choudhury said. “The new government can expedite the recognition and release if it acts upon the petition that we had filed during the earlier regime,” Choudhury said. Top Maoist or PCPA leaders do not figure on the list of 52 political prisoners who are to be released shortly. Only two Maoists are on the list. The government-appointed review committee on political prisoners, which had recommended the names of 78 undertrials for release, did not include Mahato or any jailed PCPA member. “The chief minister is not in a mood to release Chhatradhar and top Maoists before they agree to peace talks,” said a Trinamul minister. The state government has asked the review committee to expedite the withdrawal of cases against Trinamul supporters and others booked for violence during the Singur agitation. The 774 accused include agriculture minister and Singur MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya and his Haripal counterpart Becharam Manna. The elderly minister today said he did not pursue bail after his petition was rejected by the district court and a single bench of Calcutta High court. “I did not move further as I was waiting for Buddhababu’s police to arrest me,’’ he said. Manna said he had submitted a list of “false cases” against Singur accused, including 28 against him and three against Bhattacharya. Mamata had promised that all cases related to the Singur and Nandigram protests would be withdrawn.