Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court granted Friday interim bail to two West Bengal ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former city mayor Sovan Chatterjee. All the four had been arrested by CBI in the Narada sting tapes case. Imposing conditions, a five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court directed the four accused persons, who are under house arrest, to furnish bail bonds of Rs 2,00,000 each. The bench directed them not to make any comment in public or in media with regard to the matter. They were also directed to meet the investigating officer through virtual mode as and when required.
A special CBI court had granted interim bail to the four accused May 17, but a division bench of the high court – comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee – stayed the decision later that day, following which the leaders were sent to judicial custody.
The five-judge bench comprises Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee.
The case pertains to a controversy that erupted ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections after ‘Narada News’ portal uploaded a series of videos purportedly showing a number of high-profile Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders receiving money in exchange for favours to a fictitious company.