Four Trinamool Congress leaders appear before CBI court in Narada sting case

KOLKATA: Four senior leaders, facing trial in the Narada case, appeared before the special CBI judge at a court in Kolkata on Friday. Judge Anupam Mukerjee had on April 17, while ordering interim bail to the four leaders, directed them to physically appear before the court on June 4.

State ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former city mayor Sovan Chatterjee appeared before the judge and left the Bankshall court premises after a while. Judge Mukherjee said that the next date for the hearing of the matter will be fixed later in the day.

A five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court granted interim bail on May 28 to the four leaders, who were arrested on May 17 by the CBI, which is investigating the Narada sting tape case on an order of the high court.

The special CBI court had granted them bail on that day itself, but the order was stayed by the high court, which remanded them to judicial custody.

Production of the four before the special CBI court was held virtually on May 17 as the investigating agency claimed it was unable to produce the accused in court physically owing to protests outside its office at Nizam Palace by a mob of 2,000-3,000 people.

Chargesheet in the Narada sting case was also submitted against the accused before the special court on that day. The special court, granting interim bail, had fixed the next date of hearing on June 4, when the accused were to appear before it.

They were placed under house arrest on May 21 by a division bench of the high court, which modified its earlier stay on interim bail granted to the four leaders by the special CBI court. The matter was referred to a larger bench of five judges after the judges of a division bench presided by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal differed on granting interim bail to the four accused.