Mamata's nephew remanded to day-long judicial custody

Kolkata, Mar 1 (PTI): A city court on Thursday remanded Akash Banerjee, nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and three of his associates to day-long judicial custody for allegedly assaulting a police sergeant. Second Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alipore court, Suparna Roy rejected their bail prayers and remanded Banerjee and his associates Nitish Singh, Md Sarmuddin and Amit Mishra to a day's judicial custody. The prosecution opposed the bail plea and prayed for judicial custody of the accused. Counsels for the accused stated that their clients had been wrongfully charged under section 353, which is a non-bailable charge. They pleaded that section 186 of IPC (obstructing public servant from discharge of his public duty) , which is a non-cognisable and bailable charge, should be applied instead. Claiming that the accused had not assaulted the sergeant, they stated that it was an incident of traffic violation. The four have been charged under sections 353 (assault to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), 341 (wrongfully restraining a person), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 114 (abettor present, when offence is committed) of IPC and 122, 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act. The court directed the prosecution to produce the case diary and said the issue would be taken up for hearing when the accused would be produced Friday. The four were arrested Wednesday on the express instructions of the chief minister for assaulting a police sergeant at Kidderpore in south Kolkata.