KOLKATA: High voltage political drama was enacted here on Monday as TMC supporters held demonstrations defying lockdown norms in various places, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered to court arrest protesting detention of two West Bengal ministers in the Narada case by CBI.
Meanwhile, all the four leaders have been granted bail by the Court.
Special CBI court judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee after hearing their lawyers and the counsel for the agency, lawyer Anindya Raut said.
The court directed that each of the four persons will have to pay two sureties of Rs 25,000 each as bail bonds.
The four leaders were also directed to meet the investigating officer in the case once a fortnight till further orders and to co-operate with him.
The CBI prayed before the special court for judicial remand of the four arrested, while their lawyers pleaded for bail to them.
They were produced before the court through the virtual mode and the hearing in the case was also held online.
The four were kept at the CBI office in Nizam Palace following their arrest in the morning from their homes in different parts of Kolkata.
The CBI counsel placed the charge sheet in the case before the court through the online mode.
The CBI claimed that the four arrested leaders were ministers in West Bengal when the alleged illegal gratification from the sting operator took place in 2014.
Praying for 14 days' judicial remand of the four, the CBI counsel submitted before the court that all the four arrested are very influential persons and the investigation process will be hampered if they are released on bail at this stage.
He also claimed that evidence may be tampered with and witnesses in the case may be influenced by the accused persons, of whom two are ministers, one is MLA and the fourth is a former minister.
Appearing for Mukherjee, Hakim and Mitra, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, and Chatterjee's counsel Sudipta Maitra submitted that they have cooperated with the investigation all along and as such there is no requirement for their custody at this stage, when the charge sheet in the case has already been submitted.
Banerjee, also a TMC Lok Sabha MP, submitted before the court that in a bribery case, there has to be a demand and acceptance of gratification.
He claimed that in the video that was produced, it was not seen that there was any demand by any of them.
Claiming that Mukherjee and Mitra are senior citizens, Banerjee submitted that the Supreme Court has directed that the police will not make unnecessary arrests owing to the pandemic situation.
He further submitted that Hakim, is the head of the board of administrators running the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and his remaining in custody will seriously jeopardise COVID-19 management in the city.
Banerjee also questioned the governor's authority to accord sanction to prosecute the four leaders.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had on May 7 sanctioned the prosecution of Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee on a request by the CBI on the ground that all of them were holding positions of ministers in the state at the time of the alleged commission of the crime.
The Narada sting tapes, which were made public before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal, were claimed to have been shot in 2014, wherein people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of promised favours.
The sting was conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada News portal.
The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the Narada sting operation in March, 2017.
The CBI had registered cases against 12 TMC leaders, many of whom are now in BJP, and an IPS officer.
TMC party supporters raised slogans against the BJP- led NDA government, and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel outside Nizam Palace, which houses the Central Bureau of Investigation offices here, protesting the arrests.
The agitators also burnt tyres and blocked roads in several other parts of the state, including Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts.
The CBI on Monday morning arrested the Trinamool leaders, as well as former minister Sovan Chatterjee, in connection with the Narada sting case in which politicians were purportedly caught taking money on camera.
The chief minister, who arrived at the CBI office around 11 am, "told our officers that they have to arrest her if they want her to leave Nizam Palace," sources in the central probe agency said.
The sources said Banerjee's actions are akin to interference in the probe handed over to the agency by the Calcutta High Court.
Banerjee who sat in `dharna for a few hours, later left Nizam Palace, while her nephew and party leader Abhishek Banerjee advised party supporters to abide by the law and not to break lockdown norms.
West Bengal has gone into a 15-day lockdown from Sunday to tackle a rising surge in Corona cases.
Apart from the CM, Chatterjee's estranged wife Ratna, who is now an MLA from Behala Purba, Hakim's daughter and other senior leaders of the Trinamool Congress also reached the CBI office.
Reacting to the arrests, TMC spokesman Kunal Ghosh claimed that the CBI action was a vengeful act and a fallout of the BJP's loss in the West Bengal assembly elections.
"The BJP is still not able to accept defeat in the polls after having made an all-out attempt to win. This is a reprehensible act."
"When the state is fighting the Covid situation, they are trying to create disturbances in such a manner," he said.
The ruling party MP Sougata Roy said this was a "vengeful and vindictive" decision by the central government.
"The CBI action is politically motivated," said TMC MLA Tapas Roy.
West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee dubbed the arrests as illegal, contending that the CBI move on the basis of the governor's sanction was unlawful.
"I have not received any letter from the CBI nor has anybody sought any permission from me as per the protocol," he said.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had recently granted sanction to prosecute all the four leaders, following which the probe agency finalised its charge-sheet and moved to arrest them.
"I do not know for what unknown reason they went to the governor and sought his sanction. The chair of the speaker was not vacant at that time, I was very much in office."
"This sanction is absolutely illegal and arresting anyone on the basis of this sanction is also illegal," Banerjee claimed.
Taking note of the widespread protests across the state, Dhankhar urged the CM to contain the "explosive situation" and asked her to weigh the "repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism".
The Trinamool Congress on Monday also wrote to Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra seeking "necessary action" under the law against CBI officials who arrested three senior party leaders "illegally".
Minister and president of West Bengal Trinamool Mahila Congress Chandrima Bhattacharya wrote the letter on behalf of her party and urged the city police chief to treat it as an FIR.
She pointed out that Speakers permission should have been taken and warrants issued before the arrest.
Commenting on the arrests, Bishwajit Bhattacharyya, former Additional Solicitor General of India, told PTI, it was possible impute a malafide motive other than legal to the development.
"While not going into the technicalities, one would assume that a minister in a state government would obviously present himself for any questioning by the arms of law."
"Since this is a four-year-old case with the evidence on tape, there is no question of tampering with it. Under those circumstances and given the Supreme Court observations on arrests, one fails to understand why these ministers are being arrested," Bhattacharyya said.
Senior advocate Arunava Ghosh told PTI the Assembly Speaker has no authority to sanction arrests under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Hakim, Mukherjee and Mitra were re-elected as MLAs in the recently concluded West Bengal assembly polls, while Chatterjee, who left the TMC to join the BJP, has severed links with both parties.
The Narada tapes were made public just before the 2016 assembly elections in the state.
The party also wrote to Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra seeking "necessary action" under the law against the CBI officials.
Minister and president of West Bengal Trinamool Mahila Congress Chandrima Bhattacharya wrote the letter on behalf of her party and urged the city police chief to treat it as an FIR.
Senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and MLA Madan Mitra were arrested by the CBI in connection with the Narada sting operation.
She alleged that leaving its "independent character", the probe agency is acting at the behest of the Centre and arrested them at the "direction" of state Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar who has no authority to give such an order.
Bhattacharya claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are behind the entire episode.
They want to "malign our leaders in some way or the other as the BJP has failed to win the assembly election, she alleged.
"The three leaders being members of the WB Assembly, the Hon'ble Speaker should have been consulted and permission should have been taken from him before arrest which also have not been done," the letter read.
No warrant was produced before arresting the leaders, Bhattacharya said.
Besides the three, former TMC leader and minister Sovan Chatterjee was also arrested in the same case.
West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee earlier in the day dubbed the arrests as illegal contending that the governor's sanction to prosecute them was unlawful.
Dhankhar had recently granted sanction to prosecute the four leaders, following which the CBI finalised its charge sheet and moved to arrest them.
"His (the governor's) biasness is writ large from the fact that no step has been taken against Mukul Roy, MLA or Suvendu Adhikari, MLA both of BJP although there severe charges of CBI against them," the TMC leader said in the letter.
Roy and Adhikari, who had joined the BJP from the TMC at different times, were also accused in the same case.
The sting operation was purportedly conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 wherein some 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.
Bhattacharya also said in the letter that Hakim is also the chairman of the Board of Administrators of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and plays a key role in controlling the pandemic situation in the city.