Police tell Calcutta High Court house search found no incriminating material

Purba Medinipur police told the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday that a search of a house in Kolaghat found no incriminating material in a case involving West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. The search took place during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, when Adhikari was the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. He had challenged a suo motu first information report lodged after the search, and the High Court stayed the FIR on May 24, 2024.

The officer-in-charge of Kolaghat police station submitted a report to Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya. It said the search was conducted after police received information from sources during enforcement of the model code of conduct, but clarified that no incriminating material had been found at the premises. The report also referred to an apparent miscommunication.

Adhikari’s lawyer, Mayukh Mukherjee, told the court that he no longer wished to pursue the petition in light of the police report. Justice Bhattacharyya dismissed the petition as “not pressed”, meaning the court recorded the withdrawal rather than deciding the underlying challenge on its merits. Mukherjee said the suo motu case had been based on information alleging that country-made bombs and cash were stored at the house.

The FIR was lodged by the then officer-in-charge of Kolaghat police station on May 22, 2024, two days before the High Court stayed it. The police report’s account addresses the outcome of the search, but the supplied material does not state whether any further investigation or legal action will follow. It records only that officers found no incriminating items and that the court challenge was not pursued after that clarification.