Ashok Todi's bail plea turned down

KOLKATA:The Rizwan case played out in two courtrooms in the city on Wednesday. WhileCalcutta High Court turned down Ashok Todi's bail plea, the the 14thmetropolitan magistrate court, Alipore, transferred the case to the citysessions court for trial. All the accused in the case will now haveto appear before the city sessions chief judge on December 23 after which thedate of commencement of trial will be given. Todi, the prime accusedwho is now in custody, moved a bail petition in the high court on Wednesday.Justice D P Sengupta turned down the plea on the grounds that there was apossibility of tampering with evidence. He observed that Todi was an influentialperson and had used the police in breaking the legal marriage of Rizwan andPriyanka. Todi is not entitled to get relief under provisions of CrPC, as thereis sufficient material in the case diary which implicates him for committingoffences punishable under Section 306 of IPC for abetment to suicide, the judgesaid.The only saving grace for Todi is that he has already obtaineda stay from the Supreme Court against the trial."We will ask for thetrial to begin in the case of others. They haven't got a stay," said CBI lawyerSoumen Ghosh. Earlier, on December 8 the division bench of JusticeAmit Talukdar and Justice P S Banerjee referred the case to a third Bench afterJustice Banerjee did not agree with justice Talukdar's decision to grant bail .The matter was then assigned to Justice Sengupta who accepted Justice Banerjee'sview and refused to grant bail to Todi. Ashok's younger brother andco-accused Pradip Todi, who'd moved Supreme Court for bail and was asked toappeal before the high court, moved his bail plea in the high court. The casecame up for hearing before the division Bench of Justice Amit Talukdar andJustice P S Banerjee, who declined to hear the matter on personal grounds. Now,the chief justice will assign hearing of the matter to another bench.At the 14th metropolitan magistrate Madhumita Roy's court, theaccused police officers Ajoy Kumar, Sukanti Chakraborty, Krishnendu Das and AnilSaraogi arrived at the court. All four are on bail. Ashok and Pradip too werebrought from Presidency jail. The last to appear was another accused, socialworker S M Mohiuddin alias Pappu. After last Friday's violenceinside the court premises when supporters of the accused clashed with reporters,cameramen and lawyers, the police had made all arrangements to keep the courtpremises free of trouble-makers.