A prime suspect in armsdrop granted bail

Kolkata, Feb 16 (UNI) A prime suspect in Purulia armsdrop incident, which is still shrouded in mystery after a decade, was granted bail by Calcutta High Court after his lawyers pleaded that he was suffering from cancer.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices D P Sengupta and P K Dev allowed the bail of Acharya Tatbhavananda Abhadyut after the defence argued that he should be freed for treatment of cancer.

Defence counsel Sekhar Bose told the court that Tatbhavanand, aged 72, was diagnosed with cancer and admitted to the state-run S S K M Hospital for weeks recently when his condition deteriorated.

The court asked Tatbhavananda not to leave the city and appear before the court whenever he would be called.

Tatbhavananda, an Anandamargi, was at large. He was arrested in April 2004 from Delhi.

A huge cache of arms and ammunition was dropped in the seven sleepy villages of Purulia district in December, 1995.

Central Bureau of Investigation probed into the incident and arms dealer Peter Bleach, five-member Latvian crew of the plane and an Anandamargi, Binoy singh, were arrested.

Bleach, a British national, and the Latvian were convicted by a city court on the charge of waging a war against India and under the Arms Act and sentenced to life in prision. Anandamargi Singh was acquitted of the charges for lack of evidennce.

Bleach and the Latvian pilots were, however, freed from jail after the President remitted their sentences on appeals from the heads of their countries.

The prosecution said Tatbhavananda was chargesheeted and the case framed by the City Civil and Sessions Court.

The trial will begin soon.

UNI