Supreme Court denies pre-arrest bail to Abhishek Banerjee's aide in Salboni case

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to grant anticipatory bail to Sumit Roy, personal assistant to Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with the Salboni land grab case.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant chose not to interfere with an August order of the Calcutta High Court that had denied Mr. Roy pre-arrest relief.

Appearing for the West Bengal government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contended that Mr. Roy's responses during questioning had been evasive and that his custodial interrogation was necessary for the progress of the investigation. He alleged that roughly ₹15 crore had been deposited by Mr. Roy through multiple transactions.

The case has been registered under penal provisions concerning cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, the use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Mr. Roy, argued that there was no evidence linking his client to the alleged offence. He submitted that Mr. Roy had already been questioned for about 88 hours but had not been confronted with any documents or witnesses directly connecting him to the transactions under scrutiny.

The defence further submitted that the investigating agency was attempting to connect the banking transactions of the TMC with Mr. Roy's personal account, and that other accused persons had denied his involvement during questioning. The court, however, was not persuaded and declined to grant relief.