The Calcutta High Court has granted interim bail to all the four accused Bengal politicians, including two ministers on Friday who were arrested in the Narada Case by the CBI on May 17.
A five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court granted interim bail to TMC leaders Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra and former mayor and ex-TMC member Sovan Chatterjee.
The four leaders were placed under house arrest on May 19 after a split in the division bench on the question of interim bail, following which the matter was referred to a larger bench.
As the court granted relief on Friday, it asked the three TMC leaders and one former Trinamool member not to give press interviews on Narada scam or interfere with the investigation, an India Today report said.
The HC also asked the four leaders arrested in the Narada case to be released on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh.
The Narada sting operation was conducted by journalist Mathew 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 arrested politicians were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government. The sting operation was made public ahead of the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal.
The CBI arrested the four leaders on the morning of May 17, which is investigating the Narada sting tape case on a 2017 order of the Calcutta High Court.
A special CBI court granted interim bail to the four accused on May 17, but a division bench of the high court — comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee — stayed the decision later that day, following which the leaders were sent to judicial custody.
