Kolkata: Calcutta High Court’s five-member larger bench on Thursday gave an allowance to make West Bengal government a party to the Narada bribery case, while resuming the hearing.
According to Calcutta High Court sources, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had urged the larger bench to make West Bengal government a party to the Narada case as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other heavyweight ministers had agitated inside the CBI office at Nizam Palace.
“There will be another hearing of the case tomorrow and will start at 12 noon. The court will also recall the reasons for the stay order on the arrested leaders before dealing with the other aspects of the case,” mentioned the sources also adding that the arrested TMC leaders will continue in house arrest before the final verdict.
It can be recalled that on May 25, a day after moving the Supreme Court, the CBI had to withdraw that application after the apex court had instructed the CBI to continue with the Calcutta High Court.
Notably, on May 17, TMC ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee along with TMC legislature Madan Mitra and former TMC minister Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI from their residence and despite getting bail from the lower court. The CBI then approached the Calcutta High Court which had stayed the bail and had sent the leaders to judicial custody and later to house arrest.
However, Firhad Hakim, West Bengal Transport minister and Chairman of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is allowed to work virtually as he is given charge to curb the pandemic in West Bengal.
