The Calcutta High Court on Thursday deferred hearing in the case filed by CBI against bail given to TMC leaders arrested by the agency in the Narada sting tape case due to unavoidable circumstances. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijeet Banerjee is hearing an application by the Central Bureau of Investigations, to transfer the bail applications from the Special CBI Court to the High Court citing unprecedented mob pressures by supporters of the jailed leaders. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Law Minister Moloy Ghatak have also been made parties in the case filed by CBI.
“Due to unavoidable circumstances, the First Division Bench will not assemble today,” a notice in the Calcutta High Court website said. Earlier the high court on Monday night stayed the CBI court’s decision to grant bail to West Bengal ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee, arrested and charge-sheeted by the CBI in the Narada sting case.
The division bench had said that it deemed it appropriate to stay the special court’s order and direct that the “accused person shall be treated to be in judicial custody till further orders”. On Wednesday it adjourned hearing by a day in the case.
The four leaders were arrested on Monday morning from their residences in the city in connection with the Narada sting case that is being investigated by the CBI on an order by the high court.
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