The Calcutta High Court on Monday provided interim relief to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari saying that no coercive action can be taken against him in a case filed in 2018 related to the death of his bodyguard, ANI reported.

The court said that Adhikari does not need to take any immediate action on the Criminal Investigation Department’s summons issued to him, according to the news agency.

It added that the BJP leader cannot be arrested without its permission, NDTV reported.

The bodyguard, Subhobrata Chakraborty, had shot himself outside Adhikari’s home in Kanthi in Purba Medinipur district, according to PTI.

The West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department took over the inquiry into the case in July.

The department had asked Adhikari to report to its office in Kolkata on Monday, but the leader said he had some political engagements because of which he could not appear for questioning.

After the summons, the BJP leader had filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court, India Today reported. His lawyers asked how the Criminal Investigation Department could summon him while the case was pending before the court.

The Trinamool Congress has accused Adhikari of covering up the matter. Party leader Tapas Roy claimed that Adhikari was afraid, News18 reported.

“In Delhi we see our brave and fearless mass leader Abhishek Banerjee facing the Enforcement Directorate sleuths because we know he has done nothing and in Bengal Suvendu Adhikari is running away because he is scared of facing the CID officers,” he said.

Roy was referring to the Enforcement Directorate’s summons to Banerjee in connection with its investigation into the illegal mining and theft of coal from leasehold mines of Eastern Coalfield Limited in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas.

Banerjee’s wife Rujira Banerjee had also been summoned on September 1. She refused to travel to Delhi to appear before ED officials, saying that it would pose a risk to her and her young children amid the Covid-19 pandemic.