Narada Scam: TMC Ministers, 2 Other Leaders Granted Bail

Kolkata: A city court granted interim bail to the two Trinamool Congress (TMC) ministers and two other leaders on Monday evening. They were arrested this morning by the CBI in connection with the Narada scam case.

Senior ministers in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim – who also happens to be the Mayor of Kolkata – along with MLA Madan Mitra and former Mayor Sovan Chatterjee were picked up from their respective residences and brought to the CBI office on Governor Jagdeep Dhankar’s sanction.

As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee turned up at the CBI office in support of her leaders and protests spread across the state, all four were virtually produced before the Bankshall Court.

According to lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, CBI first wanted police custody for the quartet, then they asked for jail custody. But the judge turned down their plea.

The Narada bribery case surfaced after a sting operation footage, released in 2016, allegedly showed several politicians, including these four, accepting cash in return for favours.