1 incident can’t justify transfer of case: HC to CBI on Narada trial

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court told the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday that one incident may not be enough to justify the transfer of a case, apparently referring to protests by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders last month against the arrest of senior politicians in connection with the 2016 Narada sting operation corruption case.

The five-judge bench headed by acting chief justice Rajesh Bindal was hearing CBI’S plea to transfer the high-profile case from a special

CBI court to the HC. The agency argued that the protests, including by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, vitiated the proceedings of the special CBI court on May 17 and should be declared void.

“Solicitor general Tushar Mehta cited a few observations of the Supreme Court to seek transfer of the case from the special CBI court. The bench, however, told the CBI that one incident may not be a justifiable ground for the transfer of the case and that there has to be continuous activities,” said Anindya Raut, advocate and TMC leader.

On May 17, CBI arrested two cabinet ministers, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC legislator Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee in the Narada case.

The same evening, a special CBI court granted them interim bail but hours later, the HC stayed the same. On May 21, they were put under house arrest and on May 28, they were granted interim bail.

“The bench also pointed out that the cases cited by the solicitor general were mainly disruptive circumstances that surfaced during the course of the trial,” said Manishankhar Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee’s advocate.