TMC MP Tapas Paul Gets Bail In Case Over Alleged Objectionable Remarks

29 June, Kolkata

Actor turned Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Paul was granted bail by a West Bengal court on Monday in a case over his alleged objectionable remarks.

Paul surrendered before a court in Nadia district, following which he was granted bail. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed the charge sheet in May in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate (Krishnanagar), charging Paul under Sections 506 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code.

The actor turned politician, who represents Krishnanagar Lok Sabha Constituency, was caught on successive tapes in June last year, exhorting his partymen to kill Marxist workers and threatening to let loose his boys to rape their women.

A section 509 deal with words, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman and carries a maximum punishment of one-year simple imprisonment. Section 506 deals with criminal intimidation and carries a maximum punishment of seven years if the threat is for causing death, grievous hurt or to impute unchastity to a woman.

During rallies held in villages across his constituency in Nadia district, Paul called on his supporters to slit the throats of Communist Party of India-Marxist activists and threatened to gun down rival political activists.

Several cases, including public interest litigations, were filed to demand a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and the arrest and trial of Tapas Paul.

A Calcutta High Court bench of Justice Nishita Mhatre in September last year directed the CID to initiate a probe and file a first information report in the case