TMC rolls out top lawyers, will seek recall of bail cancellation

With a battery of lawyers, the ruling Trinamool Congress is set to urge the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday to recall its order cancelling the interim bail granted to the arrested TMC leaders by the special CBI court on Monday.

A senior advocate in the TMC’s legal team said the party would urge the Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee, not to cancel the bail of ministers Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, party MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

Former Additional Solicitor General and one of the top criminal lawyers of the country Siddharth Luthra and Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi are going to lead the TMC’s arguments in the court. Senior lawyers Kalyan Banerjee and Shekhar Basu will also represent the TMC leaders.

The High Court is also likely to hear a petition filed by the CBI seeking transfer of the Narada sting tape case hearing out of the state citing law and order situation. In their plea, the Central agency has already cited how TMC workers protested in front of the CBI office in Kolkata with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sitting on a dharna inside the agency’s office.

“To counter this allegation of the CBI, we are planning to raise two legal points. One, this type of cases are always first heard by a single bench. Then, how could the Chief Justice allow the matter to be taken up by a division bench? We will also argue that the Supreme Court decides on matters such as this. This is not under the purview of the High Court. So, in this case also, the matter should be decided by the Supreme Court only, and for this reason, TMC leaders cannot be denied bail,” the senior advocate said.

A day after the protests outside the Nizam Palace, the CBI’s office in Kolkata, no protests were held against the CBI or the Central government in the state.

A senior TMC leader, on the condition of anonymity, said that since Monday’s protest by TMC workers outside the CBI office could go against them, the party workers have been told to not hold any kind of protest or demonstration. “Yesterday (Monday), our party MP Abhishek Banerjee and Firhad Hakim’s daughter urged the supporters to not agitate in front of the CBI office. Today also, the supporters were stopped by the party leadership from holding any agitation.”

Frowning at Monday’s incident, the High Court said, “Confidence of the people in the justice system will be eroded in case such types of incidents are allowed to happen in the matters where political leaders are arrested and are to be produced in the Court.”
“We will not do anything which may impact the case. So, we will maintain calm and peace in the state,” a TMC leader said.