Narada: After HC stayed bail, two Bengal ministers stayed the night in jail

Kolkata, May 18: Two Cabinet ministers in the West Bengal government had to spend. The night in Kolkata's Presidency Correctional Home after the Calcutta High Court stayed their bail on Monday night in connection with the 2016 Narada Sting case.

While Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee spent the night in the correctional home, ruling TMC legislators, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee had to be hospitalised after they complained of illness.

The four were arrested by the CBI on charges of bribery and corruption in the Narada case. A special CBI court had granted bail to the four, but the High Court stayed the same. The case will be heard on Wednesday.

The sting operation was conducted by Samuel of Narada News, a web portal, in 2014 wherein some people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.

At that time, the four were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government which also had initiated a probe against Samuel.

The operation was made public ahead of the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017.

"It's quite satisfying to see these leaders arrested. The CBI could not do anything even if it had the chargesheet ready three years ago. They could not touch them, Samuel said when PTI contacted him.

"But I feel bad that Suvendu Adhikaris name is not there on the list of those arrested, Samuel said.
When pointed out that the CBI also did not take any step against former TMC MP and now BJP MLA Mukul Roy, another accused in the case, Samuel said that his is a different matter as there is no video evidence against him.

The arrests were made after Governor Jagdeep Dhankar gave the CBI the go-ahead to prosecute the four leaders. West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee dubbed the arrests as illegal, contending that the governor's sanction to prosecute them was unlawful.