The bail was granted against a personal bond of Rs 2,000 in connection with a case registered against him by the Techno City police station, based on a complaint lodged by the restaurant owner Anisul Alam. Chakraborty was booked under bailable sections of 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
The actor’s lawyer Alok Samajpati, while talking to the reporters said, the actor surrendered before the magistrate today and prayed for anticipatory bail which was granted to him. “Soham Chakraborty was booked under bailable sections. The court granted him bail against a personal bond of Rs.2,000,” said Samajpati.
Meanwhile, the actor refused to comment over the issue.
The TMC MLA moved the Barasat court a day after the restaurant owner Alam moved Calcutta High Court on Wednesday to “seek justice” and filed a petition before the single bench of justice Amrita Sinha stating that he was receiving threats for filing the complaint and police was not taking any action against the legislator.
Alam’s petition is likely to come up for a hearing on Friday.
Meanwhile, the district bar association president also questioned how and why the actor was found sitting within the office premises of the public prosecutor till his petition came up for hearing. “How can an accused in a case filed by the state meet the public prosecutor and sit in his office? This puts a question mark on the law department,” Shibaprasad Mukherjee asked.
Addressing the issue, public prosecutor Shantamay Basu said that the two have known each other for a long time and it was just a courtesy visit. “I am also a TMC district leader. Soham is an MLA from my party. I have known him for a long time. I did not talk to him as a public prosecutor and I had nothing to do with the court proceedings,” Basu said.
Last week, Chakraborty had allegedly slapped Alam after accusing him of using “bad words” against TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. The incident occurred while the Chandipur MLA had been shooting outside the restaurant in Kolkata’s New Town area. According to police, Chakraborty had parked his car outside the establishment which was reportedly causing inconvenience to other customers. As Alam asked Chakraborty’s security personnel to remove the car, an altercation followed. The MLA reached the spot and then allegedly slapped Alam. He had called Chakraborty’s allegations baseless and filed a complaint at Techno City Police Station. Chakraborty had later apologised for his behaviour and said he was “regretting my actions”.