Supreme Court declines pre-arrest relief to Abhishek Banerjee’s PA

The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 10, 2026) refused anticipatory bail to Sumit Roy, personal assistant to TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with the Salboni land grab case.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant decided to not interfere with a Calcutta High Court order of August denying him pre-arrest bail.

The West Bengal government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, argued that Mr. Roy’s answers were proving evasive and his custodial interrogation was necessary to the investigation.

The case was registered under penal provisions relating to cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy.

Mr. Mehta alleged that about ₹15 crore was deposited by Mr. Roy in multiple transactions.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Mr. Roy, countered that there was not a single shred of proof of his client’s involvement in the case. He submitted that Mr. Roy had already undergone approximately 88 hours of questioning but had not been confronted with documents or witnesses directly linking him to the alleged transactions.

He argued that the investigating agency was trying to link the banking transactions of the TMC with the personal account of his client. Even the other accused had denied Mr. Roy’s involvement before the investigating agency. However, the court was not convinced.