E-Paper
Narada sting: 5-judge bench to hear leaders’ bail plea; CBI moves SC
The CBI has also challenged the high court orders putting the leaders under house arrest, and constituting a larger bench to hear the bail plea of the accused leaders
A five-judge bench of the Calcutta high court headed by acting chief Justice Rajesh Bindal is scheduled to hear the bail plea of the four leaders accused in the 2016 Narada sting operation case today even as the Central Burea of Investigation (CBI), the agency which arrested the leaders, has moved the Supreme Court seeking adjournment of the high court hearing.
The arrested politicians are sitting ministers of Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, Trinamool Congress legislator Madan Mitra, and former MLA Sovan Chatterjee.
The CBI has also challenged the high court orders putting the leaders under house arrest, and constituting a larger bench to hear the bail plea of the accused leaders. “The CBI has moved the Supreme Court when the high court has already constituted a larger bench to hear the case. We will oppose it,” said Kalyan Banerjee, advocate and Trinamool Congress MP.
Also Read | Narada case: Sovan Chatterjee in house arrest after release from hospital
On Friday, the high court put the four politicians under house arrest and constituted a larger bench to hear the bail plea after a difference of opinion split the two-judge bench on granting them an interim bail in a corruption case.
The four were in judicial custody since May 17 after the CBI arrested them in connection with the Narada case. Though a special CBI court granted them bail, the high court stayed the order and the four were sent to judicial custody. Since Friday, however, they have been put under house arrest.
While Hakim and Chatterjee returned home and are now under house arrest, the other two are admitted in state-run hospital. “It is CBI’s effort to delay the hearing. But we have already filed a caveat in the Supreme Court and the hearing can’t be one-sided,” said another advocate.
The case pertains to a controversy that erupted ahead of the 2016 assembly elections after Narada News portal uploaded a series of videos purportedly showing a number of high-profile TMC leaders receiving money in exchange for favours to a fictitious company.
TMC has linked the arrests to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s loss in the recently concluded assembly polls. It has questioned why the CBI didn’t arrest Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who were also seen in the sting videos but have since switched from TMC to BJP.
CBI’s plea to transfer the Narada trial out of the state is also pending before the high court.
The CBI has named West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, law minister Moloy Ghatak, and lawmaker Kalyan Banerjee as respondents in its plea to transfer the trial of the case from the lower court. It claimed violent protests orchestrated by the TMC against the arrests hampered its probe and intimidated lower courts.
Banerjee staged a six-hour dharna at the CBI’s office in Kolkata after the four were arrested last Monday. Ghatak led nearly 3,000 workers and supporters to the court premises. Outside CBI’s office, hundreds of TMC supporters staged a protest and threw bricks, bottles, and shoes at central forces.
