4 Narada accused in ‘house arrest’, larger bench set up
Four heavyweight Narada sting bribery accused, who spent four nights in judicial custody since their arrests by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 17, were placed under ‘house arrest’ at their respective residences by the Calcutta High Court on Friday after difference of opinions on their bail plea between two judges of a division bench pushed the case to a larger bench of five judges for hearing next week.
Two among the four accused - Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee were allowed by the division bench of acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee following their lawyers' prayer to perform at least their duties as the cabinet ministers of the Mamata Banerjee government due to Covid-19 pandemic through meetings only in video conferences during their days under ‘house arrest.’
While Mr Hakim is the state transport minister as well as the outgoing Kolkata Mayor, Mr Mukherjee is the state panchayat minister. A logbook of recording their departmental meetings and it's duration of video conferences also has to be maintained apart from CCTV vigil at their houses, the division bench ordered adding that neither the duo can step out of their residences nor any government official can meet them physically.
These set of rules will be applicable to two other accused - Madan Mitra, TMC MLA of Kamarhati and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee too. While Mr Hakim returned home from the Presidency Central Jail in the evening, the three other accused however remained admitted to Woodburn Block of SSKM Hospital due to their illhealth.
A larger bench of five judges was constituted by the high court for hearing the case on May 24. It includes Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Indra Prasanna Mukerji and Justice Soumen Sen apart from acting CJ and Justice Banerjee.
TWO AMONG the four accused - Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee were allowed by the court to perform at least their duties as the cabinet ministers through meetings only via video conferences.