The Calcutta High Court today directed the city police not to arrest 29 colleagues of Arindam Basu, the general manager of floating hotel "Floatel" who went missing after falling into the Hooghly river from a launch during an office picnic on January 21.
The 29 colleagues of Basu had also gone on the picnic, which was organised on motor-launch MV Shibani.
Basu, who had allegedly fallen from the launch into the river in the afternoon, is yet to be found.
The 29 employees of Floatel had moved anticipatory bail petitions in the high court on the ground of a reasonable apprehension of arrest by the police.
Their counsel, Sourav Chatterjee, submitted before a division bench of Justice Joymalyo Bagchi and Justice R Bharadwaj that Basu's wife Aditi had filed an FIR, without naming anyone, in connection with the incident.
The police had lodged a murder case on the basis of the FIR and were questioning Basu's colleagues regularly, he told the bench.
The state's counsel submitted that the police were trying to trace Basu and that the probe was progressing.
The bench directed the police not to arrest the 29 persons for a period of two months and directed them to cooperate in the investigation.
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