Kolkata, Aug 1 (IANS): A division bench of the Calcutta High Court Thursday extended, till Aug 13, the stay on a single judge's order directing a CID probe and filing of an FIR into the rape and violence remarks by Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Paul.
A bench of Justice Girish Chandra Gupta and Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty concluded hearing into the matter and said they would pass the order Aug 13.
Resuming the hearing of appeals filed by the West Bengal government and Paul challenging Monday's order of Justice Dipankar Dutta, state government's counsel Kalyan Banerjee said an MP could not be treated differently from an ordinary citizen by a judge.
He claimed the writ petition on which the single bench has given its order is "untenable", and the court erred in its interpretation of section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code.
Banerjee said after the petitioner Biplab Kumar Chowdhury filed the writ petition before the single bench, personnel from the Nakasipara police station in Nadia district has approached a local television channel which broadcast Paul's speeches for the original video tape.
The channel was yet to respond, he contended.
The original petitioner's counsel Aniruddha Chatterjee said the arguments put forth by the state and Pal's lawyer were identical, giving rise to speculation that the state was defending the MP.
Justice Gupta observed during the proceedings that a man on the street making some comments was not akin to a person holding a position saying certain things.
Hearing a petition seeking criminal proceedings against Paul, Justice Dipankar Datta Monday directed the CID to probe the matter and submit a report to the court by Sep 1. He directed that a first information report be registered within 72 hours.
The actor-turned-politician was caught on successive tapes asking his party activists in his Krishnanagar constituency of Nadia district to prove themselves by killing Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) activists even as he himself asserted that he would gun down his rivals and let loose his "boys" to rape the Marxist women.