2 Bengal mantris, 2 others placed under house arrest

Two judges differ over bail, larger bench to be set up

Four heavyweight Narada sting bribery accused, who spent four nights in judicial custody since their arrests by the CBI on May 17, were put under “house arrest” at their residences by the Calcutta high court on Friday after a difference of opinion on their bail plea between two judges of a division bench pushed the highprofile case to a “larger” bench of five judges for a 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’ plea, to perform their duties as Cabinet ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government only by meetings through video conferencing while under house arrest.

Mr Hakim is the state transport minister and

outgoing Kolkata mayor, while Mr Mukherjee is state panchayat minister. A logbook of recording their departmental meetings and the duration of video conferences also has to be maintained, apart from CCTV vigil at their homes, the division bench ordered, adding

that they cannot step out of their residences nor can any government official meet them physically.

These set of rules will also be applicable to the two other accused -Madan Mitra, TMC MLA of Kamarhati, and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee. While Mr Hakim returned home from Presidency Central Jail in the evening, the three others remain admitted to Woodburn Block of SSKM Hospital due to their ill-health.

The difference of opinion between the two judges of the division bench came to light after the hearing began at the high court earlier in the day. While Justice Banerjee appeared to be in favour of interim bail for the arrested quartet on their plea to vacate the division bench's overnight stay on the special CBI court’s bail for the accused, acting CJ Bindal did not agree with him while holding that the four must be kept under house arrest.

Later, a larger bench of five judges was constituted by the high court for hearing the case on May 24. It includes Justices Harish Tandon, Indra Prasanna Mukerji and Soumen Sen, besides the acting CJ and Justice Banerjee. During the day, Mr Hakim’s family had filed a caveat in the Supreme Court in the case so that the CBI can’t have any legal advantage if it moves for a hearing against him.

Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee said: “I am very unhappy about the way the four were arrested because I was very much in office at that time. No one informed me of anything before their arrests. I was intimated about it later as per legislative rules. I do not know what unknown reasons prompted the CBI to go to the governor for permission.”