There were 31 cases registered against him, of which he had already been granted bail in 30. The Silda case – in which he was accused of carrying out an attack in the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp in Jhargram remained the only case where he had not been granted bail. A Kolkata High Court bench led by Justice Joymalya Bagchi has granted CPI-Maoist leader Arnab Dam alias Bikram bail on Thursday. The court also criticised the police for their role in the investigation.
Despite being granted bail, it will take a couple of days for Dam to walk out of the jail premises.
His parents were naturally elated with the news of their son’s release. Arnab’s father – S.K.Dam will go to receive his son, he said. Currently lodged at a correctional home in Hooghly district, IIT-dropout and Maoist leader Arnab is set for release after seven years of imprisonment.
The government lawyer for the case was severely criticised by the court on Thursday.
The incident took place in 2009 in West Midnapore’s Silda at an ERF camp, and a decade has passed since then.
Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the police why it has been unable to provide substantial evidence against the accused in the case. Asking who would take the responsibility for the pain of the families of the 23 deceased who were still to receive justice, the Judge questioned how much longer they would have to wait. Alongside, the court also ordered that the judicial process in the lower court be carried forward and completed within the next six months.
As per the terms of bail, Arnab may not leave his home and the Sonarpur area. He will also have to report to the local police station every alternate day.
Arnab Dam has recently created history by clearing the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) from the confines of jail.
He had been arrested from Asansol in 2012. Since then the youth leader has remained imprisoned. Recently, he was shifted from the Presidency Jail to a correctional home in Hooghly.
It was from the Presidency Jail that Arnab cleared his B.A, M.A and eventually, the SLET examination. He has also selected environmental history as his topic for pursuing a PhD programme. Studying the correlation between the environment and the impact it has on the lives of people is going to be his research subject, according to human rights activist Ranjit Sur.
Regularly engaged with the education of other inmates of Presidency Jail, Arnab Dam earned Rs.80 everyday for the work he put in. With this money, he cleared the fees of the lawyers handling his cases in court.
Once shifted to the Hooghly correctional home, his income stopped. Recently during his court hearing at Midnapore, Arnab asked his lawyer not to speak for him as he had no money to pay.
Now, he is free and geared to dive into his research work. Once called a “mathematical magician” by his friends, Arnab Dam is now set to answer his true calling as a gifted and brilliant student.
The state government has not yet reacted to bail being granted to the Maoist leader. An administrative official of the state has however stated that the next course of action will only be decided once a copy of the judgement reaches the government.
