Narada accused to stay in house arrest, HC questions the need for immediate arrest

The four senior Trinamool Congress leaders accused in the 2016 Narada sting operation case will have to stay under house arrest till a five-judge bench of the Calcutta high court takes up their bail plea again on Wednesday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 17 arrested two West Bengal cabinet ministers, a legislator and a former mayor in connection with the 2016 Narada sting operation case. Though a special CBI court granted them interim bail, the high court had stayed it and sent them to judicial custody.

“However, the larger bench questioned on Monday that if the accused persons were not arrested in the last seven years, then what was the need of arrest now, when the charge sheet of the case has been filed?” said Anindya Raut, advocate and TMC leader.

On May 21 the high court put them under house arrest and constituted a larger five-judge bench to hear the bail plea. The Solicitor General of India told the court that the issue was not just of bail but whether the bail hearing of the special CBI court on May 17 was non-est in law.

Meanwhile, the CBI moved the Supreme Court seeking adjournment of the hearing in the Calcutta high Court. The Solicitor General who was appearing for the CBI prayed before the five-judge bench that the hearing be adjourned as the agency had filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court. The high court, however, refused the prayer and went ahead with the hearing as the Supreme Court hadn’t heard the matter yet. “The court would again hear the matter on May 26. Till then the accused would remain in house arrest,” said Manishankhar Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee’s advocate.

The case pertains to a controversy that erupted ahead of the 2016 assembly elections after the Narada news portal uploaded a series of videos purportedly showing a number of high-profile TMC leaders receiving money in exchange for favours to a fictitious company.

TMC has linked the arrests to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s loss in the recently concluded assembly polls.

It has questioned why CBI didn’t arrest Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who were also seen in the sting videos but have since switched from TMC to BJP.

CBI’s plea to transfer the Narada trial out of the state is also pending before the high court. The CBI has named West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, law minister Moloy Ghatak, and lawmaker Kalyan Banerjee as respondents in its plea to transfer the trial of the case from the lower court.

The central agency claimed that violent protests orchestrated by TMC against the arrests hampered its probe and intimidated lower courts.

Banerjee staged a six-hour dharna at the CBI office in Kolkata after the four were arrested on Monday.