The Tripura High Court has upheld the decision to sentence three CPI-M leaders to two years of rigorous imprisonment for causing a disturbance in a courtroom and insulting a judge. The incident, which took place nine years ago during a nationwide shutdown organized by Left parties, involved Tapas Datta, Trilokesh Sinha, and Babul Debnath.
On September 2, 2015, during the shutdown, the three leaders disrupted court proceedings and insulted then South Tripura District and Sessions Court judge, Ruhi Das Paul. Following this, the police registered a suo-moto case and conducted an investigation, which led to charges being filed against Datta, Sinha, and Debnath.
Initially, a first-class judicial magistrate sentenced the leaders to imprisonment. They appealed this decision in the South Tripura District and Sessions Court, which upheld the original verdict in May of the previous year. The leaders then took their case to the Tripura High Court, where Justice T. Amarnath Goud confirmed the two-year rigorous imprisonment sentences on Thursday.
Tapas Datta is a member of the CPI-M state committee and serves as the Divisional Committee Secretary in Belonia. Babul Debnath is a leader of the All India Kishan Sabha, and Trilokesh Sinha is a Secretariat member of CPI-M’s Divisional Committee in Belonia. Despite arguments from their lawyers asserting their innocence, the courts maintained that the leaders were guilty of obstructing official duties and insulting the judge.
