3 Trinamool MLAs arrested in Narada Case granted bail by court in Kolkata

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Monday, arrested three Trinamool Congress MLAs and one former party leader for receiving bribes in 2014. However, hours later, the four leaders were granted bail by Bankshall Court in Kolkata.

“The TMC leaders (the then ministers) being virtually produced from Nizam Palace, before the court,” news agency ANI reported.

Among those arrested were Trinamool MLAs Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee. Hakim and Mukherjee are ministers in the recently-formed cabinet of Mamata Banerjee‘s third term.

The Narada sting operation case, which was carried out in 2014, found the leaders allegedly receiving money just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal.

Protesting the arrests, the party supporters raised slogans against the BJP- led NDA government, and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel outside Nizam Palace, which houses the CBI offices.

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Following the arrest, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee sat on a dharna for a few hours, later left Nizam Palace, saying that the court will decide on the matter.

The arrests come days after West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar gave permission to the CBI for the prosecution of these TMC leaders.

This is the second time the Trinamool supremo is in a tussle with the central investigating agency. In 2019, just before the Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee staged a sit-in near the Metro Channel in Kolkata over the alleged ‘mistreatment’ of then-Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar by the CBI.