Even a spirited fight by senior advocate Kapil Sibal failed to secure bail for the jailed Bengal Minister Madan Mitra as the Calcutta High Court on Thursday once again rejected his bail application.
On the contrary, Sibal’s appearance for Mitra tended to pose bigger political problems for the chit fund-tainted Trinamool leader as the State Opposition promptly questioned the source of Rs40 lakh-plus that was allegedly expended for hiring Sibal and bringing and hosting him in Kolkata.
The Division Bench of Justices, Nisitha Mhatre and Asha Arora, threw out Sibal’s argument — that his client was even prepared to resign his Ministerial chair in lieu of bail and that he had never influenced the investigation of the case.
The CBI contended that Mitra’s political leverage was proved not only by his continuation on the Ministerial chair but also his sustained stay for months in the VVIP Woodburn Ward of the SSKM Hospital, the State’s best medical facility for no established medical condition — the report of which had not been submitted by the jailor despite repeated requests by the investigating agency.
“The Trinamool Congress owes an answer to the people of Bengal on the source of the huge amount of money that was spent to hire Sibal,” senior State Congress leader and AICC member Abdul Mannan said.
While Trinamool sources said that Rs 40 lakh was spent to bring Sibal — the money included the cost of hiring a chartered plane for him — Mannan said as a petitioner in the Saradha case, “my estimates could put the expenditure to about Rs 1 core.”
While sources said the decision to hire Sibal was taken at the highest political level of the party, the Opposition parties wondered whether the money was spent by Mitra and “if so from where did he get the money because the amount certainly does not match his known source of income as was shown in the affidavit filed before the Election Commission.”
CPI(M) leader and former Kolkata Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya wondered “whether this money has its source in the chit fund scam.” He also said, “the way the Trinamool Government tried to block CBI investigation by spending Rs 11 crore to fight law cases in the Supreme Court only proves how desperate they are to hide the scam. Today’s incident is only a part of that bigger game plan.”