Lekha G
The Calcutta High Court Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee has adjourned hearing of the Narada Scam case relating to the bail of four Trinamool Congress leaders today due to unavoidable circumstances.
The notice as uploaded by the Court in the official website read, “Due to unavoidable circumstances, the First Division Bench will not assemble today.”
On May 17, the Bench had stayed the bail granted by the Special CBI Court at Kolkata to four Trinamool Congress leaders Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and Sovan Chatterjee who were arrested by the CBI on the same day.
The Bench had passed the stay order in light of the CBI’s plea seeking transfer of the case to the High Court citing “Unprecedented mob pressure” exerted on the lower court by mass protests led by Chief Minister and the Law Minister against arrests of the TMC leaders.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, had further opposed the bail granted to the accused stating that the Chief Minister had tried creating pressure on the probe agency by sitting on a dharna at the CBI office for hours.
However, Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the arrested politicians, submitted to the court that Banerjee and the TMC supporters had gathered at the CBI office to protest against the “Political vendetta” and it had no connection to the bail granted by the Lower Court.
The case is related to the several sting operation tapes released by Narada News portal in 2016 shortly before the Assembly elections of the state. The purported videos allegedly showed TMC’s leaders, ministers, MP’s and MLA’s taking bribes.