Lawyers harass judge for hours to stop order in Madan Mitra case in Saradha case

KOLKATA: An Alipore court witnessed a showdown on Monday with lawyers owing allegiance to Trinamool Congress trying to put pressure on additional chief judicial magistrate not to pass an order on a CBI plea to include section 409 of IPC against transport minister Madan Mitra in the Saradha case.

For close to five hours, there was pandemonium in the courtroom as lawyers led by Baishyanar Chattopadhyay, who is also a Trinamool councillor, tried to browbeat magistrate Haradhan Mukherjee into not passing the order. Braving a volley of rants and insults, magistrate Mukherjee stuck to his guns and insisted on issuing a suo motu order because he held the omission of section 409 from his November 18 order was a clerical mistake.

Inclusion of section 409 will enable the CBI to seek Madan's custody for 90 days instead of 60 days. The minister completes 60 days in custody this Wednesday, when his bail plea comes up for hearing. Fellow accused Srinjoy Bose, a former Trinamool MP, managed to secure bail after 60-day custody because of the erroneous omission of section 409 from the charges against him.

The bedlam began as soon as magistrate Mukherjee took seat at 2.45pm and continued unabated till 7.30pm. Chattopadhyay flaunted a resolution of the Trinamool-controlled bar association to cease work due to the death of an eminent lawyer. He claimed this was an age-old practice and only bail pleas should be heard during the day. All hell broke loose when the magistrate said he would pass a suo motu order. The lawyers threatened to bring the court to a halt from Tuesday if the magistrate didn't hear out the lawyers.

When one lawyer told the judge he was being "headstrong" and might have to face consequences, the magistrate reminded him he was not addressing the person but the chair, which deserved respect. Mukherjee told lawyers if need be he would sit in his chair all night. He also said he was ready for a transfer.