Narada case: 4 TMC leaders get bail
A special CBI court on Monday granted bail to two West Bengal ministers, a TMC MLA and a former minister arrested in connection with the Narada sting tape case, their lawyer said. Special CBI court judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee. The four were kept at the CBI office in Nizam Palace following their arrest in the morning from their homes in different parts of Kolkata.
A special CBI court on Monday granted bail to two West Bengal ministers, a TMC MLA and a former minister arrested in connection with the Narada sting tape case, their lawyer said.
Special CBI court judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee after hearing their lawyers and the counsel for the agency, lawyer Anindya Raut said.
They were produced before the court through the virtual mode.
The four were kept at the CBI office in Nizam Palace following their arrest in the morning from their homes in different parts of Kolkata.
Earlier, the CBI arrested four politicians, including two TMC ministers and an MLA, in the Narada sting case, setting off a massive political maelstrom in West Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) accused the BJP-run Centre of using the CBI for political vendetta due to the saffron party’s recent loss in the assembly election after the agency took into custody in Kolkata state ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra as well as former minister Sovan Chatterjee who were allegedly caught on camera while taking bribe in 2014.
The CBI office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata became the latest political battleground as chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived along with the kin of these politicians and demanded that she also be arrested, while angry protestors gathered at the site defying the ongoing coronavirus lockdown and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel.
In New Delhi, the CBI spokesman, R C Joshi, said the agency “today arrested four then (former) ministers, government of West Bengal in a case related to the Narada sting operation... it was alleged that then public servants were caught on camera while receiving illegal gratification from the sting operator”.