HC to hear Habeas corpus suit on Nickol Tamang on Sept 16

Darjeeling : Pema Tamang, wife of Nickol Tamang, the prime accused in the murder of All India Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang, has filed a habeas corpus writ in the Calcutta High Court seeking production of her “missing” husband.

Chief Justice J N Patel and justice Ashim Kumar Roy fixed September 16 as the date for hearing after counsels for Pema Tamang filed the writ in the high court on Monday. Habeas corpus is a suit requiring a person to be brought before a judge or into a court.

Pema Tamang filed the case through advocates Tirthankar ghosh and Sayan De. She also sought compensation from the state.

Forty-seven-year-old Nickol, accused of hacking to death the AIBL President on May 21 in Darjeeling town, has been missing since August 22 from the state Criminal Investigation Department’s custody in Siliguri. A Central Committee member of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has been spearheading the separate statehood movement in Darjeeling, Nickol Tamang was in the CID custody after being arrested on August 16.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Darjeeling had ordered for Tamang’s CID custody following a prayer from the investigating agency.

The CID claimed that Tamang fled from its custody at Pintail village in Siliguri in the morning of August 22.