Narada case: Calcutta HC grants interim bail to 4 leaders arrested by CBI

A five-justice bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday granted interim bail to four leaders associated with the TMC who were arrested by the CBI in connection with the Narada case on May 17.

Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, party MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who is an ex-TMC leader, were moved to house arrest exactly a week ago after a two-justice division bench could not agree on granting them interim bail. Subsequently, a five-justice bench was constituted to look into both their bail applications and the CBI's plea to transfer the case.

The bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justices I.P. Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee based its decision to grant interim bail on the fact that other issues related to the case were pending. "… our tentative opinion is that we will grant interim bail and then hear the matter. Because hearing of this case will take a week or so," the bench was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.

The four accused were granted bail subject to furnishing personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and two sureties. They were also directed to not speak to the media on the case against them.

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the CBI, argued against granting bail, claiming the accused were influential to affect the direction of the probe.

However, Justice I.P. Mukherjee was quoted by Bar and Bench as saying, "This probe started in 2017. They were not arrested then and probe was completed without arresting them. Why do you think they need to be arrested now and prevented from discharging their public duties?"

The case will be heard again on May 31. The five leaders had been granted bail in the matter by a lower court hours after their arrest on May 17, but the order was stayed by the Calcutta High Court.