HC stays bail granted to top TMC leaders, ex-Mayor; Suvendu, Mukul untouched

Kolkata: In a late night development, the Calcutta High Court stayed the interim bail that the Special CBI Court had granted to two Cabinet ministers, an MLA and former Mayor of Kolkata as they were arrested on Monday morning in connection with the Narada tape case.

The CBI on Monday morning arrested state Panchayats and Rural Development minister Subrata Mukherjee, state Transport minister Firhad Hakim, Kamarhati's TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Mayor Sovan Chatterjee without serving any prior notice. The Narada tape case was made public from the BJP's headquarters in Kolkata days ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections.

With the stay order on the interim bail followed by a virtual hearing that continued for around 40 minutes in the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee, all four of them would be in the correctional home till Wednesday when the next hearing in this connection would take place.

Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, submitted that "the CBI office from where the accused were to be taken to the court was gheraoed by the political supporters of the persons in custody. The crowd was 2000 to 3000….they were produced before the Special CBI Court only virtually".

Advocate General Kishore Dutta submitted that "Nizam Palace where the CBI Office is situated, the major part of it is protected by Para Military Forces. Whenever any senior leader of the party is arrested, supporters always collect there. Senior police officers along with 100 police officials were on duty and no untoward incident was allowed to happen. CBI officers were provided full protection by the local police for discharge of their duty. There is no official complaint filed by the CBI with the police about any incident."

The High Court subsequently stayed the order of the Special CBI Court and directed that all four of them "shall be treated to be in judicial custody till further orders. The authority in whose custody they are kept shall ensure that they have all medical facilities available as are required and they are treated in terms of the provisions of the Jail Manual".

All four of them, who are at the CBI office in Nizam Palace, would be taken to the correctional home on Tuesday morning.

The Court has also taken cognizance of the request of the Solicitor General of India for examination of the issue regarding the transfer of the trial.

The Special CBI Court in Kolkata in its order, which came in the evening, had earlier granted interim bail to all four setting aside the CBI's plea for their 14 days judicial custody.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee landed at the office of the Anti-Corruption wing of the CBI housed on the 15th floor of the Nizam Palace in South Kolkata where she stayed for six long hours till the hearing in the court took place. She remained seated in the office of DIG Akhilesh Singh. According to political experts, the "plan of the BJP-controlled CBI to make them (arrested persons) sign false statement" was foiled due to the presence of Banerjee. All four were produced before the court virtually.

At the same time, counsels of the arrested ministers, MLA and former Mayor have submitted before the court about the Supreme Court's May 7 order directing that the police should not apprehend any accused unless necessary in crimes sentenced with less than seven years' imprisonment. They have also submitted that "Governor has no power to give consent for their prosecution without consulting the council of ministers".

The CBI counsels submitted before the court that all four are "very much influential and threatening the complainant and the witnesses on each and every occasion with dire consequences" and pleaded for their judicial custody.

Previously, setting aside the CBI's plea, the court had ordered interim bail against a bond of Rs 50,000 each stating that "over and above when the purpose of investigation has already been completed as against the arrested persons Madan Mitra, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and Sovan Chatterjee and where there is no prayer for the CBI custody for further interrogation, mere prayer for judicial custody cannot be the ground for detention of the arrested persons".

Defence counsel Kalyan Banerjee said they have also submitted before the court that why Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who joined the BJP, were not arrested despite taking money in the Narada sting operation.

Trinamool Congress has alleged that the arrests came as an outcome of BJP's move to avenge its ugly defeat in Bengal in the recently concluded Assembly polls.

Apart from the four, the name of suspect IPS officer SMH Mirza also surfaced in the charge-sheet that the CBI submitted in the court on Monday booking them under Sections 109 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 11 and 13(2) read with 14(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act. Mirza was arrested earlier and later released on bail.

It was on March 17 in 2017, that the Calcutta High Court had ordered a preliminary probe to be conducted by the CBI in this connection. Names of TMC MPs Apurapa Podder, Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Prasun Banerjee had also appeared in this case.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on May 9 had accorded sanction to the CBI for the prosecution of Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee.

Vehemently criticising the CBI for bypassing him to take consent from the Governor, Speaker Biman Banerjee said: "There was no communication from the CBI's end with us in this regard. The Calcutta High Court has given direction to take consent from the Speaker. But the reason is not known to me as to why the permission was not sought and they (CBI) directly moved to the Governor. It was not that the Speaker's seat was then vacant. I was in my office. They cannot do this. It is strange that how the Governor had given his consent. I feel the consent given by the Governor is illegal and it is also illegal to arrest anyone based on such consent."

Thousands of Trinamool Congress supporters gathered before the Nizam Palace protesting against the "illegal arrests".