House-arrest for 4 Trinamool heavyweights in Narada case

THE Calcutta High Court on Friday sent two West Bengal ministers, an MLA and an-ex Mayor of the city to house arrest, modifying its earlier order that stayed their bail granted by a CBI court following their arrest in Narada sting tape case on Monday.

 

The court directed that the two ministers, during their period of house arrest, can deal with official files sent to them online and hold meetings through video conferencing.

 

The judges of the division bench presided by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, who differed on the issue of recalling the stay on bail to the four accused, decided to refer the matter to a larger bench.

 

For the purpose, the Acting Chief Justice has constituted a five-judge bench consisting of himself, Justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee. The matter will be taken up for hearing at 11 am on May 24. The new bench will hear the CBI’s prayer for transfer of the case from the lower court to itself.

 

Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee, Transport Minister Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI on Monday morning in connection with the Narada sting tape case that is being investigated by the agency as per a 2017 order of the High Court.