Agartala Court Grants Unconditional Bail To 23 I-PAC Members In Case Registered Against Them By Tripura Police

An Agartala Court today granted Bail to 23 members associated with Prashant Kishore mentored Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) against whom an FIR has been lodged by the Tripura Police accusing them under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 51 (1) (b) of the National Disaster Management Act.

Allowing the bail petition, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, West Tripura, Agartala, S. B. Das asked them to furnish a fresh bail bond of Rs.10,000/- with one surety of like amount.

The Court also rejected the prayer of State's Counsel to ask them to appear before the Investigation Officer noting that in case of bailable offence accused persons have the indefeasible right to be released on bail and that the Court cant impose any condition

It was also submitted by Senior Counsel Pijush Kanti Biswas (appearing for the I-PAC team) that his clients already had COVID negative test reports but police compelled them to get the testing done again

Recently, they were asked by the state government to stay put inside a city-based private hotel during their visit to Tripura, allegedly putting them under house arrest.

However, issuing a clarification, East Agartala Police Station in charge of Inspector Saroj Bhattacharjee had, while denying reports of detaining the visiting team members, said that the I-PAC team was asked to stay indoors at their hotel till the health authorities were satisfied with their COVID test reports and provided them the necessary clearance.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a senior official from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) informed that the I-PAC team was asked to stay indoors at their hotel since they are a large group comprising 23 people and the government wants to avoid any unwanted spread of Covid-19.

As reported in the media, the 23 members of I-PAC have been hired by the Trinamool Congress to strengthen its base in the State of Tripura.