Kolkata, Sep 7 The Calcutta High Court on Monday set aside an arrest warrant issued against TMC MP Mahua Moitra by a Krishnanagar court, and ordered transfer of the case against her over alleged hate speech to the special MP/MLA court at Bidhannagar here.
Moitra, in a petition before the high court, had challenged the legality of the arrest warrant issued against her by the Krishnanagar court.
The high court had on August 24 stayed the arrest warrant, which was issued by the third judicial magistrate at Krishnanagar due to Moitra's alleged non-compliance with directions to appear before it.
Setting aside all orders and proceedings taken up by the transferor judicial magistrate, a division bench presided by Justice Debangsu Basak directed the special MP/MLA court to treat the complaint case as being at the pre-cognisance stage.
The division bench, also comprising Justice Aryak Dutt, observed that the Supreme Court, in several directions, desired that proceedings against a Member of Parliament or a member of the state legislature should be dealt with by the specified court as expeditiously as possible.
A case was filed before the court in Nadia district where it was alleged that the Krishnanagar MP insulted women and made a hate speech.
Moitra's lawyer Arko Kumar Nag had argued that since the dates of her alleged speeches as mentioned in the complaint and the filing of case against her are all during her tenure as an MP, it has to be tried before the designated MP/MLA court in Bidhannagar.
He also maintained that the allegations are baseless and frivolous, and the complaint's contents cannot be treated as a criminal offence.
