Cal HC accepts plea to recall stay order on interim bail of 4 arrested leaders
KOLKATA: Amid a raging Covid situation in the state, controversy over the arrest of two state ministers, a TMC MLA and former Kolkata Mayor by the CBI in connection with a seven-year-old Narada tape case within a fortnight of BJP's ugly defeat in Bengal, deepened after the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday accepted the recall petition on its order staying their interim bail granted by the Special CBI Court in this connection.
The High Court will hear both the recall petition and the CBI's plea to transfer the case out of Bengal on Wednesday. Senior lawyers Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sidharth Luthra and Kalyan Banerjee moved the Division Bench of acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee on Tuesday seeking recall of its stay order on interim bail of the state Panchayats and Rural Development minister Subrata Mukherjee, state Transport minister Firhad Hakim, Kamarhati's TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Mayor Sovan Chatterjee.
Controversy had sparked off since the time all four of them were picked up from their houses on Monday morning. Allegations of vendetta politics have cropped up against BJP. It has been alleged that the saffron party used the CBI as neither names of turncoats Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy surfaced in the charge-sheet nor they were arrested "citing the mere excuse of interrogation" in connection with the case "whose investigation is also complete". Even no permission has been sought by the CBI for the prosecution of Mukul Roy yet. Former Narada CEO has also raised the question as to why Adhikari has not been arrested yet.
Several questions have also been raised from different quarters over the consent accorded by the Governor, when the CBI went to him bypassing the Speaker, without consulting the state government for prosecution of all four. "In case of MPs, they moved to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha for requisite consent. Then why the Speaker of the state Assembly has not been approached despite the direction of the High Court in this regard," said TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy.
Political analyst Rabindranath Bhattacharya, a Political Science professor of Burdwan University, also opined that "the CBI move was a complete violation of the set norms as the Speaker's consent is must when you are keeping a member of the House away from serving the same".
Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the third consecutive term on May 5 while the Cabinet ministers took the oath of office and secrecy on May 10 after TMC's landslide victory with a win in 213 out of 294 seats. Incidentally, it was on May 9 when Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar gave his consent and the heavyweight leaders were arrested on May 17. "They had not taken the oath of office as ministers on the day he (Dhankhar) had given his consent. But they had sworn in as MLAs. So the Speaker's consent was necessary to arrest Mukherjee, Hakim and Mitra," Roy maintained.
Training his gun at the BJP in this context, Singhvi stated in a tweet: "People seen on alleged Narada clip: Mukul Roy, Subrata Mukherjee, Sovan Chatterjee, Shuvendu Adhikary, Firhad Hakim, Shankudeb Panda and Madan Mitra. Guess who is detained, who is not. Those joining BJP have cleaned up their history faster than Afroz Shah cleans beaches."
"Clear indicators of Mala fides of central #Govt &#Cbi re #WB arrests. necessity of arrest must exist before arresting. Power of arrest never means obligation to arrest. #Narada is a decade old; even tapes are of 2016; matter also came to #SC; why necessity/urgency 2arrest NOW," Singhvi tweeted further.
"Grave doubt if #Governor, whose partisan conduct is clear, merely cos he swore in ministers in 2011, has exclusive power 2grant sanction! Why sanction after 5yrs of 2016 tapes & sudden arrests in 2021. Bad #WB election losers? #Vendetta? Electoral verdict 2b reversed?" Singhvi tweeted again.
Moreover, the CBI has also been accused of causing health hazards amid the surge in Covid cases as a huge contingent of CAPF personnel accompanied the CBI officers when the latter went to pick up the four. This comes when out of four, three of them – Mukherjee, Chatterjee and Mitra – were admitted to SSKM Hospital as they fell ill after they were taken to Presidency Correctional Home on Monday late night after their interim bail, granted by the Judge of Special CBI Court Number one Anupam Mukherjee at the City Sessions Court, was stayed by the High Court.
Hakim's daughter Priyadarshini asked as to why her father along with three others was kept detained in the CBI's office for three long hours even after the Special CBI Court granted the bail at 6 pm. The High Court's stay order on the interim bail came around 11 pm.
Terming the CBI's claim that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's presence in the CBI's office had disturbed their proceedings to be completely false, she said: "She (Banerjee) was inside the CBI's office and had no connection with the gathering outside."
Hakim's daughter also requested people not to gather outside the High Court on Wednesday to ensure that people do not get infected to Covid. This comes as Hakim himself had claimed while leaving Nizam Palace, that the CBI was not allowing him to work to save the lives of people at this trying time of the pandemic for which he has been entrusted. "The CBI counsels submitted before the High Court that the Chief Minister had disturbed the proceedings. It is completely baseless. Moreover, all four of them have always cooperated with the CBI. So, there was no need to arrest them mainly when the charge-sheet was submitted," said Mani Shankar Chatterjee, the advocate of state Panchayats minister Subrata Mukherjee.
Meanwhile, the CBI filed a caveat in the Supreme Court considering that counsels of the four arrested leaders may move the Apex Court challenging the High Court order.
