Bail order for six sent to Siliguri

The copies of the Calcutta High Court order granting bail to Chandra Bahadur Subba and five more GNLF supporters were sent to Siliguri today.

They will be released from jail, where they have been languishing for more than 100 days, after their lawyers furnish the bail bonds before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Siliguri tomorrow.

Subba and 13 others were arrested in July on the charges of killing Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporter Pramila Sharma.

One of the murder accused is Deepak Gurung, the Darjeeling branch committee president of the GNLF. The bail plea of Gurung and seven others will be heard by the high court in a couple of days. All the accused alleged in their petitions that Morcha supporters were not allowing lawyers in Darjeeling to fight their case and as a result they were being deprived of justice.

“We have faxed the copies of the high court order to our counterparts in Siliguri. They are likely to produce them along with the bail bonds in the Siliguri court on Friday. After getting the formal order from the additional chief judicial magistrate, the jail authorities will release Subba and five others,” Souvik Chattopadhaya, the counsel on behalf of petitioners, said today.

On July 25, the Morcha supporters were staging a demonstration in front of Gurung’s residence in Darjeeling. Suddenly, a shot fired allegedly from the house hit Pramila and she was declared brought dead by the Darjeeling district hospital.

After the incident, Morcha supporters went on the rampage. They even set Gurung’s house on fire. The Darjeeling police rescued Gurung and 13 GNLF supporters but charged them with murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act.

The petitioners’ counsel Jaymalya Bagchi had said yesterday that although the police filed chargesheets against his clients with the Darjeeling chief judicial magistrate on October 24, no lawyers appeared for them. “They will not leave the country, if the court grants them bails,” Bagchi had said.