Narada case: Calcutta HC orders 4 TMC leaders be kept under house arrest

A two-justice bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered house arrest for the four senior TMC leaders who were arrested by the CBI earlier this week in the Narada case.

The bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee, had postponed their hearing from Thursday.

The bench ordered that Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee be kept under house arrest instead of custody in jail, in light of the recent Supreme Court order in Gautam Navlakha's bail plea.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who had appeared for the CBI, had asked the court to stay the order on their bail plea for a week. Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the TMC leaders, argued that house arrest was equal to arrest and pleaded they be released. He claimed he was taken aback by the order on house arrest.

Justice Banerjee was quoted by Live Law as saying, "One of the members of the bench thought it fit to grant interim bail. The other member of the bench did not agree. So this point of interim bail has to be considered by the larger bench. In the meantime, considering pandemic situation, house arrest given." The court directed the four leaders be provided medical amenities.

The four leaders had been granted interim bail by a special CBI court soon after their arrest. However, the bail order was overturned after the CBI appealed to the Calcutta High Court.

The court is continuing hearing in the matter after the CBI appealed to shift the case outside West Bengal.