Kolkata, Dec 02: A city court today adjourned the hearing till February 12 in an assault case against British national Peter Bleach, serving a life sentence in the Purulia armsdrop case, after he said that he wished to file a revision petition in the Calcutta High Court. He submitted before metropolitan magistrate A K Mukherjee that he would file a revision petition against the court's earlier decision to hear the assault case first and then to decide on his contention that the case was not maintainable.

Bleach had moved the high court to be heard first and then to take up the assault case. The HC had directed the metropolitan court to decide the matter.

Bleach submitted before the magistrate that he wished to move a revision petition against the HC order.

Mukherjee, who also took up a petition by city-based legal activist Deepak Prahladka, adjourned the hearing after he submitted that he was not prepared today. Pralhadka claimed that if a crime occured in jail, the superintendent had to file a complaint, while in this case it was done by the alleged victim.

The court fixed the matter for hearing and also the plea of Bleach in the assault case on February 12, 2004.

The Presidency Jail had filed a complaint that Bleach had assaulted a fellow prisoner, Kamal Raut, on April 05.

Bleach is the only remaining convict of the 1995 Purulia armsdrop case as the five Latvians, who were convicted with him, had been released following Presidential clemency. Bureau Report