By IANS,
Kolkata : Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Suhrid Dutta and party activist Debu Malik, who were last year sentenced to life for the murder of Tapasi Malik in Singur, were released on bail Friday.
A two-member division bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising Justice Pranab Chattopadhyay and Justice Asim Roy, had sanctioned the bail plea Wednesday but asked Dutta and Malik to furnish two sureties of Rs.10,000 each and barred them from leaving the Singur police station area without the court’s permission.
A 26-car convoy of CPI-M cadres took Dutta and Malik to the party office at Singur in Hoogly district.
Eighteen-year-old Tapasi’s burnt body was found inside the fenced area of Tata Motors’ small car Nano factory in Singur, about 40 km from here, Dec 18, 2006.
Tapasi from Bajemelia village in Singur was an active member of the opposition Trinamool Congress-led Singur Krishiami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (Save Farmland Committee) that was protesting land acquisition for the Nano project.
“This was a conspiracy of the opposition party against us to stop industrialisation at Singur. But the high court’s decision brought out the truth that we are innocent,” Dutta said.
“We are not scared of any obstacles in our path of fighting for people’s good, and will continue to work at it,” he said.
Dutta, CPI-M’s Singur zonal committee secretary, was found guilty by a fast-track court at Chandannagar in Hooghly district of masterminding the murder conspiracy.
CPI-M worker Malik was also convicted on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and manipulating evidence in the murder case.
Both have challenged their conviction in the high court.
Tata Motors withdrew the Nano project from Singur last year in face of spiralling protests against land acquisition and shifted it to Gujarat.