Calcutta High Court has landed a tight slap on the face of Mamata Banerjee with a stay on the bail granted to two TMC leaders by the CBI special court. The High Court argued that after the “dharna” by TMC leaders including CM Mamata Banerjee outside the CBI office, the karyakartas of TMC also pelted stones at the CBI office. And, these things did not go well with the High Court.
“In our opinion aforesaid facts are sufficient to take cognizance of the present matter with reference to the request of the learned Solicitor General of India for examination of the issue regarding transfer of the trial. We are not touching the merits of the controversy but the manner in which pressure was sought to be put will not inspire confidence of the people in the rule of law. As during the period when the arguments were heard, the order was passed by the Court below, we deem it appropriate to stay that order and direct that the accused person shall be treated to be in judicial custody till further orders,” said Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and comprising Justice Arijit Banerjee.
Previously, the CBI had arrested two Ministers – Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee – and Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra in the Narada bribery case. Besides these leaders, former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee was also arrested by the investigative agency. However, the arrest of the most prominent Muslim face of TMC and its other influential leaders has left Mamata Banerjee rattled.
Upon hearing the news of the arrest, Mamata Banerjee and other TMC leaders rushed to the CBI office. The arrest of these corrupt leaders has hurt Mamata Banerjee badly because these leaders allegedly took care of the party’s finances through various legal and illegal activities.
All of the aforementioned leaders were ministers during the time of the alleged commission of the crime that came to light in the purported Narada sting tapes. Three of these leaders were ministers in Mamata’s West Bengal cabinet at the time, while Madan Mitra was the Sports and Transport Minister between 2011 and 2015.
Just to jog the memory of the readers a bit, the sting tapes were made public before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal, and were claimed to have been shot in 2014. The footage of these sting operations showed 12 TMC leaders and ministers accepting bribes. Some fictitious companies were allegedly set up to facilitate monetary transactions to the TMC leaders to gain the Bengal government favour.
Among the leaders caught on camera were Subrata Mukherjee, Sovan Chatterjee, Madan Mitra and Firhad Hakim. Thereafter, the Calcutta HC ordered a preliminary probe by the CBI in March of 2017. Last year, TMC MP Aparupa Poddar submitted documents to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Narada Sting Tapes scam in which she was also one of the accused.
No one can deny that the menace of Ponzi schemes group and syndicate raj flourished under the Mamata government. It also explains why she is so rattled with the CBI investigation in the Narada Sting Tape case, in which some of her most popular party faces were involved. However, because of Mamata’s support to these leaders, Calcutta High Court had to put a stay on the bail granted to them, and they would not be happy with her approach.
