Narada case: Calcutta HC refuses CBI prayer to adjourn matter

The Calcutta High Court on Monday took up hearing in the Narada sting tapes case in which two Bengal ministers a TMC MLA and a former mayor of Kolkata have been arrested refusing a prayer by the CBI to adjourn the matterRepresenting the CBI Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta during the virtual session prayed before the fivejudge bench that it adjourn hearing in the case as the investigating agency has filed a special leave petition SLP before the Supreme Court in connection with the high courts May 19 and May 21 ordersThe fivejudge bench of the high court however decided to commence hearing in the matter since the SLP is yet to be listed for hearing before the apex courtIt heard the CBI plea for transfer of the case from lower court to high court and applications filed by the accused for recall of the stay order the high court had given on a lower court rulingThe CBI has sought before the high court transfer of the case alleging extraordinary circumstancesAlso ReadCalcutta HC orders house arrest of 4 TMC leaders held in Narada sting tape caseThe agency claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sat on a dharna at the CBI office after the arrests were made and that it could not produce the four accused in court physically owing to unruly protests by a large number of people outside its office complexThe four leaders ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former city mayor Sovan Chatterjee were arrested on May 17 morning by the CBI which is investigating the Narada sting tapes case on the order of the high courtA special CBI court had on that very day granted interim bail to the four accused but a division bench of the high court comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee later stayed its decision following which the leaders were sent to judicial custodyDiffering on the application filed by the accused for recall of the stay order Justice Arijit Banerjee had on May 19 passed an order allowing bail while acting chief justice Bindal wanted that they be placed under house arrestThe division bench then passed an order on May 21 sending the four accused to house arrest modifying its earlier order that stayed their bail granted by a CBI courtThe ministers and the other two are undergoing house confinement since May 21In view of the difference of opinion the matter was then referred to a larger benchA fivejudge bench comprising the acting Chief Justice justices I P Mukerji Harish Tandon Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee was subsequently constituted and the case was listed for hearing at 11 am on MondayLawyer Manishankar Chatterjee who is representing Subrata Mukherjee said that the issues that would be heard in the high court were noted by the fivejudge bench on MondayAmong the main issues that were brought to the fore include the possibility of hearing the CBIs transfer application together with the bail pleas filed by the accused Chatterjee saidHe further said that the fivejudge bench has fixed the matter for further hearing on WednesdayThe sting operation conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 had purportedly caught on camera politicians accepting bribes in lieu of favoursThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever