Agartala rally plea rejected, Trinamool to move Tripura HC again

Kolkata/Agartala: Trinamool Congress on Tuesday said it would move Tripura High Court again after the latter turned down the party’s plea, seeking permission to hold a public rally in Agartala on September 22, when the state informed the HC it had imposed prohibitory orders till November 4 to pre-empt a third Covid wave.
In a late night statement, Trinamool said: “As per due process of law, we have sought permission from the Tripura government for all our events, only for them to be denied repeatedly.This time they did not even respond to our applications and we had to approach the HC to know that S.144 was being imposed in the state. In line with the HC’s decision not to interfere in policy decisions, we are postponing our scheduled events in Tripura. We will seek further clarity from the court on the limits to such arbitrary use of executive power.”
Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is likely to leave for Agartala on Wednesday. He is expected to attend several party programmes, which may include induction of workers.
Earlier in the day, Tripura advocate general Siddhartha Sankar Dey told the court of Justice Arindam Lodh that the district magistrate of Tripura West had imposed prohibitory order under Section 144 of CrPC in the Sadar subdivision from September 21 to November 4. He also said that since Durga Puja would start from October 11, the state administration did not want to allow any political rally or public gathering in Agartala.
“It has been observed that the city (Agartala) witnessed violence in the aftermath of political rallies/processions in the past two-three weeks. That is why prohibitory orders have been clamped on Sadar subdivision,” Dey said. The HC observed that it didn’t want to interfere in a state decision and turned down the Trinamool appeal.
Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen said they would go forward with the legal matter in a legal way. “The BJP government is afraid of Trinamool and Abhishek Banerjee. But, the people of Tripura are wholeheartedly with the Trinamool despite the BJP government’s conspiracies,” he told reporters.
Sen, who was accompanied by Trinamool leaders Sushmita Dev and Subal Bhowmik, further said: “We have seen saffronisation of autonomous and constitutional bodies under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. We have also seen in the past how the Biplab Deb government fears the Bengal tiger; we are seeing it again now.”
In a related development on Tuesday, Trinamool leaders Kunal Ghosh, Prakash Das and Bhowmik appeared before the officer-in-charge of New Capital Complex thana in connection with a case over alleged interference in police work. During the course of interrogation, Trinamool spokesperson Ghosh took ill and was shifted to hospital. He is out of danger and recuperating, party sources later said.