Kolkata, May 18 (IANS) Jahangir Khan, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Falta Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, which is going for repolling on May 21, has approached a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court with an anticipatory bail plea, anticipating his arrest before the voting date.

A single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya has admitted his petition, and the matter will come up for hearing in the second half on Monday after 2 p.m.

In his petition, Khan has alleged that an FIR has been lodged against him by the police with fabricated charges. He has also pleaded in his petition for the court’s direction to the state government to inform him about the exact number of FIRs filed against him by the state police, along with the details of the charges there.

In the anticipatory bail petition, Khan has expressed apprehension of getting arrested before the polling day.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Shuvendu Adhikari held a meeting in Falta on Saturday. Taking a dig at Khan, known as a “close associate” of Trinamool Congress general secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, the Chief Minister said that Khan will be taken care of after re-polling is over.

Incidentally, the voting for the Falta Assembly constituency was held in the second phase of the two-phase polling in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections on April 29. On that day, several complaints of electoral malpractices surfaced from Falta. In several booths, the EVM buttons beside the names and symbols of the BJP candidates were covered with white tape. Then, the special poll observer, Subrata Gupta, who is currently the advisor to CM Adhikari, personally visited Falta and conducted a thorough investigation into the matter.

Finally, based on Gupta’s findings, the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered repolling in the entire Falta constituency. The repolling will be held on May 21, and the results will be declared on May 24.

–IANS

src/dpb