HC turns down Todi's bail plea

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court onWednesday turned down the bail plea of industrialist Ashok Todi, the mainaccused in the death of computer graphics designer RizwanurRahman.Justice D P Sengupta turned down the plea of Todi, who is incustody, on the grounds that there was a possibility of tampering with evidence.He observed that Todi was an influential person and had used the police inbreaking the marriage of Rizwanur with Priyanka (Todi'sdaughter).Meanwhile, the 14th metropolitan magistrate court,Alipore, transferred the case to the city sessions court for trial. All theaccused in the case will now have to appear before the city sessions chief judgeon December 23 when the date of trial will be given.Todi is notentitled to get relief under provisions of CrPC, as there is sufficient materialin the case diary which implicates him for comitting offences punishiable underSection 306 of IPC for abetment to suicide, the judge said.The onlysaving grace for Todi is that he has already obtained a stay from the SupremeCourt against the trial."We will ask for the trial to begin in thecase of others. They haven't got a stay,'' said CBI lawyer Soumen Ghosh.On December 8, a division bench of Justice Amit Talukdar and JusticeP S Banerjee referred the case to a third bench after Justice Banerjee did notagree with Justice Talukdar's decision to grant bail. The matter was thenasigned to Justice Sengupta who accepted Justice Banerjee's view and refused togrant bail to Todi.Ashok's younger brother and co-accused PradipTodi, who'd moved Supreme Court for bail and was asked to appeal before the highcourt, moved his bail plea. The case came up for hearing before the divisionbench of Justice Amit Talukdar and Justice P S Banerjee, who declined to hearthe matter on personal grounds. Now, the Chief Justice will assign hearing ofthe matter to another bench.All the accused police officers - AjoyKumar, Sukanti Chakraborty, Krishnendu Das - and Anil Saraogi, Ashok Todi'scousin, arrived at the court of the 14th metropolitan magistrate Madhumita Royon Wednesday. All the four are on bail. Ashok Todi and his brother Pradip Toditoo were brought from the Presidency jail. The last to appear was the otheraccused social worker S M Mohiuddin alias Pappu.After last Friday'sviolence inside the court premises when supporters of the accused clashed withreporters, cameramen and lawyers, the police kept outsiders away.