Kolkata, 26 May (H.S.): Jahangir Khan suffered a major setback after the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday withdrew all interim protections and legal safeguards granted to him. The court also clarified that the interim protection order issued on May 18 would no longer remain in force.

A case had been registered against Jahangir Khan in 2019, in which he had earlier secured legal protection from the court. The protection was scheduled to expire on Wednesday, prompting the matter to come up again for hearing before the High Court on Tuesday.

In the morning session, due to the absence of lawyers representing the concerned parties, the matter was referred to the regular bench. This effectively meant that once the protection period expired, there would be no legal barrier preventing his arrest.

Separately, ahead of the Falta Assembly by-election, Jahangir Khan had also obtained another interim relief from the High Court. That matter too came up for hearing on Tuesday morning, during which the state police submitted its report before the court.

During the hearing, Justice Parthasarathi Sen observed that the interim protection had been granted in view of the election process, but the petitioner had not approached the court seeking quashing of the FIRs. Therefore, there was no justification for continuing the protection.

Referring to the police report, the court stated that the investigation against the petitioner could proceed and questioned why the interim protection should not be withdrawn.

Jahangir Khan’s counsel Kishore Dutta sought time to file a reply. Later in the afternoon, the matter was heard again, following which the court ordered withdrawal of all interim protections granted to the Trinamool leader.

According to court sources, a total of seven FIRs have been registered against Jahangir Khan, who had contested as the Trinamool Congress candidate from the Falta Assembly constituency. He had approached the court seeking protection from arrest, but all such legal safeguards now stand revoked.

Notably, just 48 hours before the Falta Assembly by-election, Jahangir Khan had announced that he would not contest the election. Prior to that, he had sought interim protection from the court to avoid arrest.

In the by-election results declared on Sunday, Jahangir Khan reportedly secured only a little over 7,000 votes. In the same Assembly segment where Abhishek Banerjee had secured a lead of more than 1.5 lakh votes during the last Lok Sabha election, the Trinamool candidate this time forfeited his deposit. Reports also claimed that Jahangir Khan himself did not turn up to cast his vote.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey