Narada bribery case: CBI withdraws appeal from SC against Calcutta HC order allowing house arrest of TMC leaders

NEW DELHI: In a significant development, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday withdrew its appeal from the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta High Court order allowing house arrest of 4 Trinamool Congress leaders in the Narada alleged bribery case.

While hearing the Narada case, the top court said that a five-judge bench of Calcutta High Court is already hearing the Narada bribery case. The CBI and four leaders are at liberty to raise all issues there, said the top court.

Earlier, the central probe agency had moved the Supreme Court challenging a Calcutta High Court order. It may be noted that the Calcutta high court had on May 21 ordered the house arrest of two West Bengal ministers, an MLA and a former Kolkata mayor.

A division bench, presided by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, differed on the issue of recalling the stay on bail to the four accused. It decided to refer the matter to a larger bench of five judges and the hearing is scheduled at 11 am.

The central probe agency has challenged the high court’s order and referring it to a larger bench.

West Bengal Transport Minister Firhad Hakim, Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI last Monday in connection with the Narada sting tape case that is being investigated by the agency on a 2017 order of the high court.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee had on Monday launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar for ''directly transferring the Narada case to the CBI'' and urged the state’s residents to file a complaint against him. Banerjee said that the governor’s action was against the Constitution. 

Reacting to it, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said that he was left "stunned" on Sunday as TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee launched a tirade against him, claiming that it was at his behest the three TMC leaders and a former city mayor were arrested in the Narada sting operation case.

The sting operation was conducted by journalist Mathew Samuel of Narada News in West Bengal, showing a few TMC ministers, leaders and an IPS officer allegedly accepting bribes. 

The stint operations tapes were released in the case to expose the accused persons before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections.