Narada bribery case: Calcutta HC grants bail to arrested Trinamool Congress leaders

The Calcutta High Court on Friday granted interim bail to four Trinamool Congress leaders arrested in connection with the Narada bribery case, Bar and Bench reported.

A five-judge bench, which includes Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee, heard a recall application filed by the four leaders against the stay of their bail.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested West Bengal ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee in connection with the case on May 17. They were granted interim bail by a special CBI court later that day. But, this bail order was stayed by a division bench of the High Court in a late night hearing the same day. On May 21, the High Court ordered that the four leaders will be kept under house arrest instead of being in jail.

“Our tentative opinion is that we will grant interim bail and then hear the matter,” the bench said on Friday. “Because hearing of this case will take a week or so.”

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the central agency, argued that the leaders were influential to affect the investigation into the case. “It may have an adverse impact on the society,” he said….

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