CBI makes Mamata party to Narada sting tape case

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and law minister Moloy Ghatak have been made parties in a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before the Calcutta high court seeking transfer of the Narada sting tape case from the state, even as the high court adjourned till Thursday the hearing in the case in which two Trinamool Congress (TMC) ministers, an MLA, and a former mayor of Kolkata were arrested by the federal agency.

Besides Banerjee and Ghatak, the probe agency has also made TMC MP and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee a party in its petition before the high court.

In view of the adjournment on Wednesday, ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee will continue to remain in judicial custody.

Seeking transfer of the case

from the special court, CBI claimed that all the four arrested persons are very influential and can threaten the witnesses. During the hearing, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for CBI, pointed out that CM and other leaders staged a dharna at the CBI’S office in Kolkata after

the arrests. He said that it was an orchestrated attempt to frustrate the course of justice.

In response,senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the arrested leaders, described Banerjee’s six-hour dharna as “Gandhian way of protest”.