Kolkata: A special CBI court here Wednesday rejected a bail plea of suspended IPS officer SMH Mirza, who was arrested by the central investigating agency in connection with the ‘Narada’ tapes case. The special court judge Anupam Mukhopadhyay extended SMH Mirza’s judicial remand till November 13 on a prayer by the CBI. The accused will be produced in court on that day again.
Praying for his bail, Mirza’s lawyer Sayan De submitted that he has been in judicial remand for 30 days and has not been questioned by the CBI investigators during the period.
The CBI lawyer opposed the prayer and submitted that SMH Mirza is an influential person and enlarging him on bail at this stage may hamper the investigation.
Mirza was the Burdwan SP when the sting operation was allegedly carried out by Mathew Samuel, editor of ‘Narada’ news portal, in 2014. He was arrested September 26 this year and produced before the court, which had initially remanded him to CBI custody for five days. After that the court had remanded Mirza to judicial custody for 14 days September 30 and had extended it twice.
The Narada tapes had surfaced ahead of the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls. In the tapes, persons resembling senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders and Mirza were seen accepting money from representatives of a fictitious company in return for favours.
PTI
