Narada case: Calcutta HC to hear bail pleas of arrested TMC leaders today
Premium- In its order on May 21, a division bench of the Calcutta HC referred the bail pleas of arrested TMC leaders to five-judge bench
Narada bribery case: A five-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court will hear the bail pleas of four arrested TMC leaders today at 11 am. On Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta High Court's order which allowed the house arrest of four Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, arrested by the central investigating agency.
In its appeal filed before the top court, the CBI had sought deferment of the hearing scheduled today by a larger bench of five Judges of the Calcutta High Court.
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The larger bench was constituted after a division bench differed on the arrested leaders' bail plea. In its order on May 21, the division bench of the HC referred the matter to five-judge bench and ordered the TMC leaders to be kept under house arrest.
The four TMC leaders accused in the case are Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and former MLA Sovan Chatterjee. Hakim and Mukherjee are ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government.
On May 17, the CBI informed that it had arrested four accused persons who were the then ministers in Government of West Bengal in a case related to Narada Sting Operation.
The investigating agency said that the allegation in the case was that the accused as public servants demanded and accepted illegal-gratification to show favour to a private person who was posing as a representative of a fictitious company at the time of transaction and discreetly recording the same.
The CBI also said that the High Court had directed it to conduct a preliminary enquiry and based upon the result it should forthwith register an FIR in respect of the alleged crime and proceed to investigate the same in accordance with law.
The agency said that respondents had challenged this order of the HC but the Supreme Court upheld the directions of the HC.
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