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Narada case: Calcutta HC to hear bail pleas of arrested Bengal politicians today
A special CBI court granted interim bail to Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, the ministers, and ruling TMC legislator Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee in the case. But hours later, the high court stayed the bail order late on Monday
The Calcutta high court will on Wednesday hear bail pleas of two Bengal ministers, a legislator, and a former mayor two days after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested them over corruption charges. It will also take up the CBI’s petition to transfer the trial.
A special CBI court granted interim bail to Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, the ministers, and ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee in the case. But hours later, the high court stayed the bail order late on Monday.
Chatterjee, Mukherjee, and Mitra had to be admitted to a state-run hospital on Tuesday after they complained of illness. Hakim is admitted to the hospital at Presidency Correctional Home in Kolkata.
The four on Tuesday moved the high court seeking “recall” of its Monday night order staying the bail.
Also Read | Videos, witnesses in Narada case show 4 TMC leaders took cash: CBI sleuths
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Siddharth Luthra, and Kalyan Banerjee, who is also a TMC MP, moved the recall petitions.
The CBI has sought the transfer of the trial alleging “total failure of rule of law”. It said this was the ground reality under which CBI was to function.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee staged a dharna at the CBI’s office in Kolkata after the arrests of the four, while the state law minister led nearly 3,000 TMC workers and supporters to the court premises.
The 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, purportedly caught several TMC leaders accepting money in exchange for alleged favours to a fictitious company.
