Trinamool Leader Asked To Appear Before NIA Team Thrice A Week

On a plea by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for custodial interrogation of Mahato, the court ruled that the accused appear before the investigating officer at the task force's Salt Lake office at 11 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed Chhatradhar Mahato, the former leader of Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), to appear at the probe agency NIA's office in Kolkata thrice a week for alleged involvement in a murder case. On a plea by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for custodial interrogation of Mahato, a division bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee ruled that the accused appear before the investigating officer at the task force's Salt Lake office at 11 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The bench further said that if there is any breach of its direction, the NIA can bring it to the notice of a lower court, which, if it deems fit, will there upon record it and permit the agency to take him into custody. The matter will be heard again at the high court on April 20, the bench directed.