123 Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday stayed the proceedings against MS trainee Asfaqullah Naiya for six weeks. The next hearing is on Feb 28.
But Justice Tirthankar Ghosh didn't close the investigation. He left it open, subject to further scrutiny.
Naiya, one of the prominent faces in the RG Kar movement, had moved the HC, seeking a stay on the probe on the grounds that a police force from Kolkata had raided his Canning house on Jan 14, based on a complaint from a Rajarhat resident, Raju Bakshi. The complainant had alleged that Naiya, an MBBS doctor and an MS (ENT) trainee, falsely claimed to be an MS (ENT) at his private practice at a healthcare clinic in Singur.
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, on going through Naiya's case diary presented in court on Wednesday, observed: "At this stage, I do not find any material to attach culpability for continuation of investigation. The initiation of the investigation was on questionable grounds." As he stayed the probe, Justice Ghosh cited paragraphs from an SC order, in which it was stated that whenever an HC exercised its special powers... to quash an FIR on the grounds it was manifestly frivolous or vexatious, the court needed to examine the FIR more cautiously.
Justice Ghosh noted the petitioner was a protester, implicated in criminal proceedings. "Prima facie, I find the petitioner made out a case... where a criminal proceeding is manifestly attended with mala fide, with an ulterior motive of vengeance and to spite the accused out of personal grudge," he observed.
Justice Ghosh noted the complaint had no document, supporting of the claim. State standing counsel Sirsanya Bandyopadhyay, in the case diary, could only present a document downloaded from the clinic's webpage, where it mentioned Naiya as an MS (ENT), and referred to the clinic's Instagram page.