Narada Case: All 4 TMC leaders get interim bail

Eleven days after their arrest by CBI in Narada sting operation case relating to alleged graft, senior West Bengal ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee were granted interim bail by the Calcutta High Court yesterday.

The interim bail was given by a five-member bench of the High Court with condition that it is valid till the bench gives a final order in this case. The bench granted interim bail upon furnishing two bonds of Rs 2 lakh each.

The CBI can further interrogate the accused but without physically summoning them to the CBI office because of the prevailing Covid-19 situation, the High Court said, adding the investigations can proceed via video conferencing.

Also, the leaders cannot give interviews to the press on this case or any other legal matters pending on them.

When the hearing commenced in the High Court yesterday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed grant of interim bail to the arrested four politicians saying they are influential and could whip up public emotions again.

Justice I P Mukherji, one of the judges of the five-member bench asked the Solicitor General why the TMC leaders, who have not been arrested during the investigation for over four years, should be kept in house-arrest now when they are required to do public functions during the pandemic.

The four politicians have been under house arrest in the Narada sting operation case after the High Court had stayed a bail given by the special CBI court in the case which relates to Narada portal's sting operation. It showed the four accused taking money from a fictitious investor in return for favours.

The four leaders were arrested on the morning of May 17 by CBI which is investigating the Narada sting tapes case on a 2017 order of the Calcutta High Court.

A special CBI court had granted interim bail to the four accused on May 17 but a division bench of the High Court comprising acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee stayed the bail later that day, following which the leaders were sent to judicial custody.

The bail issue was referred to the five-judge bench after a two-member bench gave a split verdict on whether the relief can be given to the four politicians.

The CBI had asked for the case against the TMC leaders to be transferred out of Bengal citing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's sit-in protest at the probe agency's office on May 17. It had also alleged that the state law minister went to court with a mob when the accused politicians were to be produced.