High Court reserves judgement on prayer for CID probe into Tapas Pal remark

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgement after hearing a prayer for a CID probe into Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal's insensitive comments against women during election campaign.

Justice Dipankar Dutta watched a video clip of the offensive comments made by Pal, for which he had tendered an unconditional apology.

Irked at the language used by the two-time Lok Sabha MP from Krishnagar, Justice Dutta asked Pal's counsel if the comments were that of a lawmaker or of a loafer.

When the counsel submitted that Pal, a Bengali film actor, had already apologised for the comments, Justice Dutta wanted to know whether in the country one can get away with rape by seeking apologies.

A complaint was filed by Biplab Chowdhury at Nakashipara police station seeking action against Pal for his unsavoury comments against women and opposition party supporters.

Chowdhury, a resident of Nakashipara in the Krishnagar constituency, moved the high court praying that his complaint be treated as an FIR and a direction for a CID investigation into the matter.

The hearing into the prayer was concluded and the judgement was reserved by the court.