CBI withdraws Narada plea in SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the house-arrest order of two Trinamool Congress (TMC) ministers, a prominent MLA and a former mayor of Kolkata in connection with the 2016 Narada sting tapes, stating that their personal liberty could not be mixed up with the protests by chief minister Mamata Banerjee against their arrests by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The bench of justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai found no rationale behind CBI’S petition as it pointed out that if the agency was aggrieved about the protests by Banerjee and its law minister, they should rather proceed against them under the suitable provisions of law instead of citing their demonstrations as reasons to cancel the relief granted to the TMC leaders.

“We don’t appreciate of such dharnas, etc. But if a CM or a law minister is taking law into their own hands, should the accused be made to suffer?” the bench told solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for CBI.

The court gave two choices to Mehta; either withdraw the petition and go back to the Calcutta high court where a five-judge bench has been constituted to all the issues relating to this case, or get an order on his petition from the top court which will have to hear the lawyers for the accused and state too.

With the writing on the wall, the S-G opted to withdraw the petition with a liberty to raise all contentions before the five-judge bench of the high court. NEW DELHI: