2 Bengal ministers spent night in jail

West Bengal ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee spent the night in Kolkata’s Presidency Correctional Home while legislator Madan Mitra and former mayor Sovan Chatterjee were hospitalised as they complained of illness after the Calcutta high court stayed the bail of the four late on Monday.

The CBI on Monday arrested the four under the Indian Penal Code’s Section 120b (criminal conspiracy) and the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the 2016 Narada sting operation before a special court granted them bail.

The case pertains to online news portal Narada News’s twoyear-long sting operation. The videos of the operation were uploaded months ahead of the 2016 assembly elections and purportedly showed TMC leaders accepting money in exchange for alleged favours to a fictitious company. Mitra and Chatterjee were hospitalised around 4 am on Tuesday. Chatterjee is diabetic, his friend Baisakhi Banerjee said. Mitra had earlier tested positive for Covid-19. “I am having breathing trouble. We are elected representatives. We are not thieves and dacoits. They [CBI] should not have treated us like this,” Mitra told reporters while being shifted to the hospital. A jail official said that Hakim and Mukherjee could also be sent for a check-up. Mukherjee accompanied Mitra and Chatterjee to the hospital but later returned to the jail. “I am not keeping well. I may have to go for a check-up on Tuesday,” Mukherjee told reporters at the hospital early on Tuesday.

A jail official said both Hakim and Mukherjee skipped dinner and took a stroll in the morning. They have been lodged in a special cell. The high court will hear their bail pleas on Wednesday.

The ruling TMC has accused the CBI of acting at the behest of the BJP. It pointed out that two key people shown in the sting, Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari, were not arrested since they have since defected to the BJP.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to the CBI’s office in Kolkata after the four were arrested and left after nearly six hours.

THE TMC ACCUSED THE CBI OF ACTING AT THE BEHEST OF BJP AND POINTED OUT THAT TWO KEY PEOPLE WERE NOT HELD SINCE THEY DEFECTED TO SAFFRON PARTY.