Narada case: Calcutta HC orders house arrest of TMC leaders
Narada case: The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered house arrest of two West Bengal Ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former leader Sovan Chatterjee in connection with the Narada scam. The High Court had earlier stayed the bail granted to them by a special CBI court till further orders. All the four were arrested by CBI in the Narada sting tape case on Monday.
The judges of the division bench -- presided by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal -- differed in opinion over vacating a stay given by it on bail granted by a special CBI court to ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee. The bench, also comprising Justice Arijit Banerjee, finally directed that the leaders, placed under judicial remand so far, will remain in house confinement for now.
It also decided to refer the matter to a different bench owing to difference of opinion between Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee. The court's order is in tune with the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in the Gautam Navlakha case.
The sting operation was conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada News, a web portal, in 2014 wherein some people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in return of favours.
