In a twist to the legal tangle over the arrest of four senior Trinamool Congress politicians including two Bengal Ministers, an MLA and a former Minister a two-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday put them under house-arrest following a split of opinion between the judges on whether they should be granted bail or kept in judicial custody.
All four will now be placed under house arrest, the court ruled. The order of house arrest was passed by acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal following a difference of opinion between him and Justice Arijit Banerjee who ordered the four leaders’ release on bail in the six-year-old Narada payoff case.
The Court rejected the CBI’s plea that being influential persons the foursome could influence and manipulate witnesses and refused to stay the house arrest order.
While senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued in favour of an interim bail pending the constitution and hearing by a larger bench the Court said retained its order for house arrest granting however the Ministers leverage of being virtually consulted by the officers of their respective departments on important issues like handling of the pandemic situation.
Singhvi said, “House arrest is no less than arrest. They should be released” as an “Interim situation should be freedom” because being ministers and MLAs there was no possibility of flight risk. The Court however said that a release could not be ordered till the matter was disposed of by a larger Bench a time frame for formation of which was however not given.
The four accused Firhad Hakim, Subroto Mukherjee (both ministers), Madan Mitra, an MLA and a former Ministers, and Sovan Chatterjee — a “TMC-turned-BJP-turned-neutral” politician and a former minister— were arrested on Monday morning by the CBI in the Narada pay off case where all the four and at least seven others were seen on a video accepting cash for benefit from a sting journalist. The incident took place in 2014 but it was released before the 2016 Assembly elections.
In a high-pitch drama that followed their arrests thousands of people gathered at the Nizam Palace office of the CBI where the foursome was kept. Even Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too staged a sit-in at the same office for more than six hours demanding their release.
In the evening a local CBI court granted bail to the four accused after the CBI failed to produce them personally at the court following the ruckus outside its office. Soon after the High Court admitted an appeal filed by the CBI late on Monday evening and stayed the bail which was heard on Friday.
While three of the four accused were currently in the hospital getting treated for their ailments Hakim was in the Presidency Jail hospital where he was being treated for mild fever. Hakim was likely to be shifted to his house whereas the other accused would stay put in the hospital, sources said.
Meanwhile, even as the parties prepared for a hearing before a larger Bench of the High Court the CBI sources said that the Agency was planning to move the Supreme Court seeking to quash the High Court order of house arrest.