On Thursday, a single bench of the Calcutta High Court temporarily halted the Kolkata Police's investigation into the alleged national anthem disrespect by BJP MLAs. The ruling Trinamool Congress had accused these MLAs of disrespecting the anthem within the assembly premises on November 29.

Until January 17, an interim halt has been placed on the investigation. This marks the second instance within a week where both the state government and Kolkata Police have encountered setbacks in this case. Earlier, Justice Jai Sengupta's bench shielded the BJP MLAs from any punitive measures, such as arrest, after the Kolkata Police lodged an FIR accusing them of disrespecting the National Anthem.

Justice Sengupta on Thursday ordered the interim stay after examining the video footage of the November 29 incident in the state assembly. The main allegation against him is that when Congress MLAs were singing the national anthem at an event under the statue of Baba Saheb BR Ambedkar, BJP MLAs were raising slogans of "chor, chor".

However, after examining the video footage on Thursday, Justice Sengupta said that since only a crowd of ruling party MLAs could be seen in the footage, it was not possible to conclude that there was disrespect to the national anthem.

When the state government counsel claimed that the footage of the opposition MLAs was in other CCTV videos, Justice Sengupta said that if the crowd of ruling party and opposition MLAs could not be seen in the same footage, then how would it be ascertained. Can BJP MLAs hear the sound of the national anthem?

Justice Sengupta also said that it seems that the national anthem is being used as a political weapon. He said that if someone suddenly starts singing the national anthem at some place, will an elderly patient get up from the bed? It remains to be seen whether the national anthem was sung to show respect or was used to trap the opponent.

The incident took place on November 29 when black-shirted Trinamool Congress MLAs led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were protesting near Ambedkar's statue inside the assembly complex. At the end of the protest, a group of BJP MLAs led by the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) reached the Assembly complex. All the MLAs, including the leader of the opposition, were seen shouting "thief", "thief" while pointing towards the protesting MLAs.