Calcutta High Court to resume hearing on Narada case today

The hearing will resume at 2 pm.

Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, the two cabinet ministers of the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, high profile lawmaker Madan Mitra and former TMC man Sovan Chatterjee, who is also a former Kolkata Mayor, were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday in connection with the Narada case.

Though all four were granted bail by a special CBI court, the high court put a stay order on it leaving all to lodge in Presidency Jail.

On Wednesday, the Division Bench of the high court comprising acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee also heard the CBI's plea to transfer the trial to the high court, nullifying the proceedings in the CBI court.

The CBI has also made West Bengal Minister Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister Moloy Ghatak and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee party to the case.

News portal Narada News released several sting operation footage, where TMC's leaders, ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen allegedly taking bribes.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the CBI, told the court on Wednesday that the Chief Minister tried to create pressure on the probe agency by sitting on a dharna at the CBI office for hours.

Incidentally, Banerjee went to the CBI office at Nizam Palace within hours of the arrests and sat on a literal dharna, asked the officials to release her partymen and asked the officers to get her arrested too.

Mehta told the court the Chief Minister was shouting at the officers and TMC supporters engaged in violence outside the CBI office.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is representing the arrested politicians, told the court that Banerjee and TMC supporters had gathered at the CBI office to protest against the "political vendetta" and it has no connection to the bail granted by the lower court.

Singhvi said the accused were public representatives and highlighted that the concerned senior politicians had always cooperated with the CBI.