Kolkata, June 24 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted interim anticipatory bail to former Trinamool Congress legislator Aditi Munshi, also an acclaimed devotional singer, in a case registered against her by the West Bengal Police accusing her of possessing assets disproportionate to her income.

However, while granting anticipatory bail to Munshi, the single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta rejected the anticipatory bail plea of her husband, Debraj Chakraborty, who is himself a Trinamool Congress councillor in the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, in the same case.

On Wednesday, Justice Sengupta’s bench also directed both Munshi and her husband to cooperate with the police during the course of the investigation.

While granting anticipatory bail to Munshi, the bench observed that the couple has a four-month-old daughter and that consideration was taken into account while granting interim relief to the mother.

The bench also imposed an interim restriction on any foreign travel by Munshi or her husband without prior approval of the Calcutta High Court and directed both of them to surrender their passports before a lower court.

The single-judge bench further observed that during the interim period neither Munshi nor her husband would make any attempt to contact or influence any witness in the case.

At the same time, Munshi would also not be allowed to enter any area under the jurisdiction of Baguiati Police Station, where the case was registered.

The principal allegation in the disproportionate assets case against Munshi and her husband is that they transferred assets worth around Rs 100 crore either anonymously or in the names of relatives and acquaintances.

According to the charges framed by the police, this was done deliberately to understate the value of assets declared in Munshi’s election affidavit. Both have also been accused of amassing huge assets through extortion, operating syndicates and engaging in land-grabbing activities in the Rajarhat-Gopalpur Assembly constituency, which Munshi represented as a Trinamool Congress legislator from 2021 to 2026.

However, she was defeated in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year.

–IANS

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