"People may have a feeling that rule of law prevails but it is the mob which has an upper hand": Calcutta High Court Stays CBI Court’s Order Granting Bail To TMC Ministers, MLA
Ordering for an injunction against the CBI Court’s order granting interim bail to TMC Ministers Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra & former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee the Calcutta High Court on Monday night stayed the bail & ordered judicial custody till May 19.
This came after the CBI moved the High Court challenging the grant of interim bail by the CBI court stating that their probe was getting impacted.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajnish Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee passed the stay order after CBI filed an application stating that the probe had been meddled with in light of the dharna staged by CM Mamata Banerjee.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the CBI office from where the accused were to be taken to the court was gheraoed by political supporters of the 4 TMC leaders. "It is a case in which there a total failure of rule of law," he added, urging the Court to exercise powers under Section 407 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to transfer the trial.
"The crowd was 2000 to 3000. Stone pelting was resorted to. Some of the supporters even entered the office of the CBI and manhandled the staff present there. Not only this, the CM of the state came at the spot at 10.50 hours and sat on dharna there," the order recorded submission of the law officer.
The High Court noted that the Law Minister of the State along with supporters mobbed the court where the accused were to be presented along with charge sheet.
"The Law Minister remained in the court complex throughout the day till the arguments were heard. In these facts and circumstances if any order is passed by the Court the same will not have faith and confidence of the people in the system of administration of justice..... Confidence of the people in the justice system will be eroded in case such types of incidents are allowed to happen in the matters where political leaders are arrested and are to be produced in the court," Court noted.
"People may have a feeling that it is not rule of law which prevails but it is a mob which has an upper hand and especially in a case where it is led by the Chief Minister of the State in the office of CBI and by the Law Minister of the State in the Court Complex," the Court further said.
The order of the CBI court was thus stayed and it was ordered that the arrested leaders be kept in judicial custody.
Earlier in the evening, Justice Anupam Mukherjee of the Special CBI Court, City Sessions Court, Bichar Bhawan, Calcutta had granted interim bail to the accused(s) on condition of the accused(s) cooperating with the the IO in respect of further investigation & meeting the IO once a fortnight until further orders with the satisfaction of Ld CMM Calcutta, in default of which they would suffer judicial custody till May 31, 2021.
“Though there is a prayer for further investigation as against other FIR named accused persons but on behalf of IO there is no prayer for CBI custody of the arrested persons”, the CBI Court had observed.
The CBI Special Court while granting relief basis a recent judgement of the Hon’ble Apex Court, in which the Court held that,
“Overcrowding of prisons is a phenomena playing several countries including India. Some prisons might not be willing to be released in view of the social background & the fear of becoming victims of deadly virus. The Hon’ble Apex Court is also of the view that overcrowding of the accused in the prison might have an effect of the infection of CoVID 19 which should not be encouraged & accordingly the Hon’ble Apex Court had directed the authorities concerned to decongest the prison for avoiding infection in between the inmates”
The leaders charged u/s 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 7 and 13(1)(a) 13(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act earlier in the day were arrested from its headquarters at Nizam Place under sections in connection with the Narada sting operation, carried out sometime in 2014 by journalist Mathew Samuel and telecast in 2016 ahead of the Assembly election, showing top leaders of the Trinamool Congress from Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari (both are now with the BJP and Adhikari is the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly) to Mr. Hakim, Saugata Roy, Sovan Chatterjee and Madan Mitra, accepting wads of money.
The four TMC leaders were arrested for allegedly "demanding and accepting illegal gratification to show favour to a private person who was posing as a representative of a fictitious company". The alleged act was captured on camera.
In March 2017, based on a PIL seeking an impartial investigation into the Narada tapes, the Calcutta High Court ordered a preliminary probe to be conducted by the CBI in the case.
The matter will be heard on Wednesday, May 20.