Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, allowing him to contest the Nandigram bypoll. The court ordered bail until October 20, enabling Pradhan to campaign for the bypoll, which is scheduled for October 6. The decision followed a request by the Congress party to allow Pradhan to contest the election provided he secured bail in the five criminal cases in which he had been arrested.

Pradhan was arrested on September 18, hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced her faction’s support for him in the bypoll. His lawyer, Prasenjit Jana, stated that Pradhan was arraigned on murder and other charges linked to a 2007 case during the Nandigram anti-land acquisition movement. The court had earlier expressed surprise that the police sought his arrest in 2026 for cases registered in 2007.

Pradhan had been in judicial custody until October 7 in a separate Arms Act case and was also sent to custody by a lower court in connection with four other pending non-bailable arrest warrants. The state government informed the court that five cases had been withdrawn by the previous government, and Pradhan was not wanted in the sixth. The court was also told that he had been arrested and remanded in connection with the other five cases.

The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari vacated Nandigram and retained Bhabanipur, from where he had won in the May assembly polls. The BJP formed its first government in West Bengal, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule. The Election Commission of India has announced bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar on October 6, with results expected on October 9.

In a parallel development, a bench of justice Krishna Rao dismissed a petition against Hasi Rani Rath, the BJP’s candidate for the bypolls in Nandigram. The Congress had moved the court alleging discrepancies in Rath’s affidavit, where she stated her age as 60 but also claimed to have passed the Class X board exam in 1965.

The court’s decision to grant bail to Pradhan has raised questions about the legal procedures and the timing of the arrests, as the cases date back to 2007. The evidence does not provide any statements from Pradhan or his legal team regarding the court’s decision or the nature of the charges. The full details of the criminal cases and their current status remain unclear, with no further information provided in the sources.