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Mamata, Ghatak file new request in Calcutta high court ahead of Narada hearing
Mamata Banerjee and law minister Malay Ghatak filed their fresh request to take their affidavit on record on the CBI petition which wants the Narada case transferred out of the state.
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and law minister Malay Ghatak on Monday filed fresh applications to request the Calcutta High Court to take up their affidavits on record in connection with the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) request to transfer the Narada sting operation case out of the state, their lawyers said.
On Friday, the Supreme Court set aside the high court order that refused to accept their affidavits describing their role on May 17 when ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the by the CBI.
The CBI approached the high court on May 24 to seek orders to transfer the case out of the state, claiming there were violent protests orchestrated by the ruling TMC that hampered its probe and intimidated lower courts.
Banerjee and Ghatak missed their deadlines to respond to the CBI plea. On June 9, the high court declined to take the affidavits on record. Banerjee and Malay Ghatak approached the Supreme Court on this point.
The top court on Friday told the TMC leaders to file a fresh request to the high court and asked the high court to decide “de-novo” the fresh pleas. The Supreme Court said the TMC leaders, in their application, shall give reasons in support of bringing the affidavits on record at this stage of hearing. It added that an advance copy should be sent to the CBI to enable it to come up with a response by Tuesday, the next date of hearing.
The Narada case pertains to a two-year-long sting operation whose videos were uploaded months ahead of the 2016 assembly elections. The sting, conducted by online news portal Narada News, allegedly caught TMC leaders accepting money in exchange for alleged favours to a fictitious company.
The CBI alleged that Banerjee, Ghatak and other TMC leaders played a key role in stopping agency officials from performing their legal duty after the four leaders were arrested. It claimed that Banerjee sat on a six-hour-long agitation at the CBI office at Nizam Palace in south Kolkata after the arrests while Ghatak went to the Banshall court premises during the virtual hearing of the case before the special CBI court on May 17. The agency has accused Ghatak of trying to influence the judge who heard the bail petition of the accused leaders.
The judge granted bail to the four politicians on May 17 but the high court stayed the bail order the same night. The four leaders have since been released on bail.
