Calcutta, Aug. 18: Calcutta High Court today came to the aid of a family that accuses the local CPM committee of hounding it out of Burdwan and ordered the district superintendent of police to probe the allegations and file a report immediately.

“In a democratic country, every citizen has the right to stay in his own house and carry out his own business,” Justice Pinaki Ghosh said in response to a petition filed by Dipak Chakraborty, who has been living in a Calcutta hotel with his wife and son.

He added that the CPM activists had no right to oust the petitioner from his house and prevent him from carrying on with his business. He also warned political workers against taking the law in their own hands.

Chakraborty, who has a three-storey house in Burdwan town and used to run a garments showroom, said his properties have been encroached upon by members of the CPM local committee and police were not heeding his complaints.

“My daughter-in-law, who is an active member of the party, in connivance with local hooligans were trying to grab my property,” Chakraborty said.

Chakraborty’s son Debashis married Soma, a resident of Patipukur in Calcutta, in 1994. After some trouble between the couple, Soma approached party workers who forced Chakraborty to close down his business on July 14 and ousted the family from the house on July 21, Chakraborty’s petition said.

“They also forced us to leave the district and since then my wife, son and I have been staying in a private guest house at Sealdah,” Chakraborty told the court.

His counsel Arunava Ghosh said the CPM has started a party office on the first floor of his client’s house. “Two other floors are being used by his daughter-in-law.”

His client moved the state human right commission after the district police refused to take action. “The rights panel ordered an inquiry into the matter by an officer not below the rank of superintendent of police. But nothing has been done so far,” the lawyer said.