High Court of Tripura upholds 2-year RI handed to 3 CPI(M) leaders

The High Court of Tripura has upheld the decision of the District and Sessions Court to award two-year rigorous imprisonment to three Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders for creating a ruckus inside a courtroom and insulting a judge, a court official said on Friday.

The incident took place nine years ago during a nationwide shutdown called by the Left parties.

A High Court official said that the single judge bench of Justice T. Amarnath Goud on Thursday upheld the earlier judgment of the South Tripura District and Sessions Court awarding two years of rigorous imprisonment to three CPI(M) leaders -- Tapas Datta, Trilokesh Sinha and Babul Debnath.

After the incident on September 2, 2015, the police registered a suo-moto case and launched a probe. The police also filed chargesheets against the three prominent CPI(M) leaders.

A first-class judicial magistrate imprisoned the Left leaders, who subsequently filed a review petition in the South Tripura District and Sessions Court which in May last year upheld the trial court’s judgment.

The three CPI(M) leaders then moved to the High Court against the district court order.  The trial court in 2022 convicted the three CPI(M) leaders for insulting the then South Tripura District and Sessions Court judge Ruhi Das Paul and obstructing official duties.

The lawyers of the trio accused pleaded in court that the CPI(M) leaders were not guilty in the case.

Datta is the CPI(M) state committee member and Divisional Committee Secretary in Belonia while Debnath is the leader of All India Kishan Sabha and Sinha is the Secretariat member of CPI-M’s Divisional Committee in Belonia.