Bengal: BJP leader Motiur Rahman joins TMC ahead of assembly polls
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Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal BJP leader and social worker Motiur Rahman on Saturday joined the ruling Trinamool Congress, ahead of the assembly elections.
Rahman was a BJP candidate in the 2021 assembly polls from Harishchandrapur in Malda. He was defeated by his TMC rival.
He joined the TMC at its headquarters here in the presence of senior party leader and minister Bratya Basu, and Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haque.
Assembly elections in West Bengal are likely to be held in April.
Basu said Rahman had secured a significant number of votes in the 2021 elections, helping the BJP emerge as the second-largest party in the constituency, traditionally considered a Congress stronghold.
“Many people had then said that a sizeable number of people in the area did not vote for the BJP, but for Motiur Rahman. His popularity and social work has earned him wide support,” Basu said.
Rahman said he decided to join the TMC to become a part of the development initiatives undertaken in the state under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Fourteen to fifteen years ago, there was very little development in rural Bengal. There were no proper roads or drinking water facilities in the countryside. After Mamata Banerjee came to power, development has taken place. I joined the TMC to contribute to that development,” he said.
“Besides, the BJP’s brand of politics is increasing division in society. I felt out of place in the BJP,” he added.
Haque said Rahman has been known for his social work among the poor.
“He has always helped people who approached him. Even as a minority candidate of the BJP, he received a good number of votes in the constituency. By joining us, he will be able to serve people in a better way,” Haque asserted.
Earlier on February 19, BJP MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma from Kurseong had joined the TMC.
Sharma, while joining the TMC, had expressed resentment over "the functioning of the BJP, ignoring people of the hills”.
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Court can reject anticipatory bail but cannot direct accused to surrender: SC
New Delhi (PTI): A court can reject anticipatory bail of an accused but it has no jurisdiction to direct him to surrender before the trial court, the Supreme Court has said.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while hearing a plea filed by a man accused of cheating and forgery.
"If the court wants to reject the anticipatory bail, it may do so, but the court has no jurisdiction to say that the petitioner should now surrender," the bench said.
The Jharkhand High Court had rejected anticipatory bail plea of the accused and asked him to surrender and seek regular bail.
In this case, a complaint had been filed before a magistrate alleging offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120B read with 34 of the IPC, in connection with a land dispute.
The high court had dismissed the second anticipatory bail application of the accused on the ground that no new circumstances were shown.
It had relied on its earlier order rejecting his first anticipatory bail plea, in which the court directed the petitioner to surrender before the trial court and seek regular bail in terms of the decision in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI.
The top court said such a direction was wholly without jurisdiction and said that if a court chooses to reject anticipatory bail, it may do so, but it cannot compel the accused to surrender.
