The Calcutta High Court has stayed the bail granted to four leaders, the then ministers of West Bengal government who were arrested by CBI in connection with Narada sting case on Monday. This comes hours after a special CBI court granted bail to the politicians.
Special CBI court judge Anupam Mukherjee had granted bail to senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee. The court had directed that each of the four persons will have to pay two sureties of Rs 25,000 each as bail bonds.
Since the bail has been cancelled, all of the four leaders will have to stay in CBI custody till May 19, which is the next date of hearing.
West Bengal witnessed a high-voltage political drama that saw Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sitting on a dharna at the probe agency’s office for six hours as her party supporters besieged the premises and indulged in violent protests in several parts of the state. The CBI submitted its charge sheet against the four, besides IPS officer SMH Meerza who is already out on bail.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) accused the BJP-run Centre of using the CBI for political vendetta due to the saffron party’s recent loss in the assembly election, after the agency arrested the four leaders, who were allegedly caught on camera while taking bribes in the 2014 sting by a news channel.
The CBI office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata became the latest political battleground in the state as chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived along with the kin of these politicians and demanded that she also be arrested while angry protestors gathered at the site, defying the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel.
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