The Narayan Biswas Affair

For twelve years, Narayan Biswas, an absconder from justice was a minister in the Communist Government of West Bengal. Had the election commission not taken the decision to strike the names of absconders off the rolls, he would have still been a minister. What is worse, the Communist Government tried to falsely implicate a man who had the misfortune of having the same name as that of the minister.
Here is list of articles on the Narayan Biswas affair

A Grave Constitutional Dereliction (The Kolkata Statesman, Oct 31,2005)

Excerpt:

THE Narayan Biswas affair is getting more bizarre and nasty each day. The reported gimmick of the state housing minister, casting aspersions on the judiciary on the matter by keeping Mr Biswas (minister of state, small scale & cottage industries, charged with rioting and arson) seated by his side has crossed the limits of civilised and responsible behaviour. The state government had been remiss on several counts. First, they played a trick in the Honourable High Court which put another person with the same name in a grave legal jeopardy. It was very appropriate for their Lordships to have detected the fraud and promptly corrected the mistake by cancelling the bail application of Mr Biswas. They admonished the state lawyer for playing foul with the court. No responsible lawyer would attempt to do this. Secondly, on the cancellation of the bail application, the state government could have either asked Mr Biswas to resign and surrender before the appropriate court or have dismissed him with the direction to the police to apprehend him. It did neither and Mr Biswas is brazenly moving about performing, if that’s the word to use, his official duties.

Minister in mistaken identity, Trinamul sniffs scandal (The Kolkata Statesman, Oct 7,2005)
Excerpt:

It was a case of mistaken identity that made the Trinamul Congress today sense a “political” victory of sorts and demand the resignation of Mr Narayan Biswas, minister for cottage industry, who, according to the party, had been “refused bail” by Calcutta High Court. The Trinamul leadership even wanted the chief minister to show political morality and sack the minister immediately, especially when the Marxists had trodden the “high moral ground” over the conviction of SUCI MLA, Mr Prabodh Purkayat, recently. But it turned out that the minister actually had been granted bail, while a namesake of his, accused in a different case, had been denied it. A Division Bench of Calcutta High Court today granted anticipatory bail to some petitioners, including the minister. During the hearing of the minister’s bail petition, no lawyer appeared for the de facto complainant. Some time later, when another case in which another Narayan Biswas was among the petitioners came up, the Division Bench rejected his bail prayer. Later, when Mr Arunava Ghosh, who was to appear for the de facto complainant for the minister’s bail hearing, came to know of what had transpired, he told reporters that he has seen the judges and pointed out that the court had granted anticipatory bail to a minister against whom a charge-sheet had been filed on allegations of rioting. The Bench decided to rehear the case tomorrow and pass an order.

Narayan Biswas puts in papers (The Kolkata Statesman, Nov 01, 2005)

Excerpt:

A party that time and again resorted to strong-arm tactics while ruling West Bengal yet never repented has had to buckle under pressure from its own district unit in South Dinajpur and a relentless campaign by the Press. Mr Narayan Biswas, CPI-M’s minister of state for small-scale and cottage industries, tendered his resignation from the Buddha administration this morning.

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