Kolkata:
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused the urgent permission to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee to travel abroad for eye treatment, about two weeks after rejecting a similar request.
A single bench of Justice Sougata Bhattacharya said it doesn’t see the need for 40-year-old Banerjee, who is facing a police case related to alleged intimidatory statements he made during the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election campaign, to leave the country when medical procedures are available in India.
It is immaterial where Banerjee, who sustained an eye injury in a 2017 road accident, gets treated, as getting medical intervention is more important, Justice Bhattacharya said.
The same bench had rejected Banerjee’s plea on July 20, saying there are several reputed eye clinics in Kolkata.
While extending till October 6 his interim protection from coercive action in a case related to his alleged comments against leaders and workers of a rival party at a public meeting on April 27 in the run-up to the second phase of the West Bengal assembly polls, Justice Bhattacharyya had directed Banerjee to cooperate with the probe and not travel abroad without the court’s permission as previously ordered.
Maintaining that the court was not inclined to allow the petitioner to travel abroad when the investigation was underway, Justice Bhattacharyya said the Trinamool MP should appear before the head of ophthalmology at the state-run SSKM Hospital, who will decide whether Banerjee’s eye issue can be treated there.
Justice Bhattacharya had said that the court will take a further decision in the matter only after seeing the report from SSKM.
The Diamond Harbour MP had then gone to the Supreme Court, which on Monday asked the Calcutta High Court to take up his petition within a week.
