The Calcutta High Court issued a stay order on the bail of the four Trinamool Congress leaders who were arrested on Monday in the Narada sting case. The accused will remain in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till Wednesday.
Earlier on Monday, a special CBI court in Kolkata had granted bail to the four leaders—TMC ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and ex-Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee. However, they were not immediately released.
The arrests on Monday sparked massive protests outside CBI’s office. Amid TMC supporters shouting slogans and pelting stones outside, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee went inside the CBI office and demanded to be arrested along with her leaders.
While the West Bengal CM was inside the CBI office, party workers took to the streets to protest against the arrests outside the CBI office. TMC supporters repeatedly clashed with the central forces too. However, the Kolkata Police did not take any steps to control the situation, despite the ongoing Covid lockdown in West Bengal. Banerjee remained at the CBI office for about six hours.
Questions were also raised about the CBI arresting the leaders without the permission of the Assembly speaker and how the Governor authorised the agency to go make the arrests. However, a statement dated May 9 said that the Governor is the competent authority to accord sanction in terms of law as he happens to be the appointing authority for such ministers in terms of Article 164 of the Constitution.
“Utter violation of Democratic Norms & Federalist Polity by Modi-Shah controlled CBI, arresting 2 Bengal Ministers WITHOUT Assembly Speaker’s permission as per protocol,” said WB Finance Minister Amit Mitra in a tweet.
He also claimed that the arrests were a form of political vendetta after the party’s victory in the recent Assembly elections in West Bengal.
WB Governor Jagdeep Dhankar also took to Twitter to say, “Total lawlessness & anarchy. Police and administration in silent mode. Hope you realise repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism. Time to reflect and control this explosive situation that is worsening minute by minute.”
Reacting to the arrests, Mathew Samuel, the man behind the Narada tapes, said that this was a fight against corruption, but wondered why Suvendu Adhikari was spared.
A sting operation had been purportedly conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 wherein people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.
The tapes were made public just before the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017.