Ajoy Kumar and (below) Sukanti Chakraborty

The three police officers accused in the Rizwanur Rahman death case got a legal reprieve on Friday, with the Supreme Court staying an order cancelling their bail.

The stay will be in force till December 5, the day the apex court is likely to hear a petition filed by Ashok and Pradip Todi, two of the seven accused in the case, challenging the legality of the CBI chargesheet against them.

“Interim protection of the police officers is granted till December 5,” a bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said after hearing out the lawyers of the three cops.

The cops — Ajoy Kumar, a former deputy commissioner of police (detective department), assistant commissioner Sukanti Chakraborty and sub-inspector Krishnendu Das — would have been arrested had they failed to surrender in the Calcutta Metropolitan Magistrate’s court by Friday.

The high court had on November 19 overturned a sessions court order granting bail to the trio, who were also directed to surrender in the magistrate’s court by November 20.

But they did not turn up before the magistrate on Thursday. Their lawyers stating that they had filed a special leave petition in the apex court seeking a stay on the order cancelling their bail.

The high court overturned the bail order following a petition by Rizwanur’s family claiming that the process followed by the sessions court in granting bail to the cops was illegal.

Justice A.K. Talukdar and Justice P.S. Banerjee had observed that the sessions judge had erred by granting bail without going through the case diary.