WB CM Mamata Banerjee Moves SC Against Kolkata HC Order On Filing Affidavits In Narada Sting Case

A five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on June 9, had said it will make a decision on considering the affidavits by CM Mamata Banerjee and Moloy Ghatak later.

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee moved to the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the Calcutta High Court's denial for filing of affidavits by her and state Law Minister Moloy Ghatak on their role on the day of the arrest of Trinamool Congress leaders by the CBI.

A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Aniruddha Bose will be hearing the separate appeals filed by the chief minister, Ghatak, and West Bengal Government on Tuesday.

Earlier, the top court had said that it would hear the appeal filed by Ghatak on June 22.

The top court had earlier requested the high court to hear the case a day after the apex court considers the appeals of the state government and Ghatak against the order.

A five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on June 9, had said it will make a decision on considering the affidavits by CM Mamata Banerjee and Moloy Ghatak later.

The affidavits are pertaining to their role on the day of the arrest of 4 Trinamool Congress leaders by the CBI in connection with the Narada sting tape case.

It has been alleged that TMC leaders played a key role in stopping CBI from performing its legal duty after the agency arrested four leaders on May 17 in the Narada case.

Senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Vikas Singh, appearing for Ghatak and the state government, contended that under the rules there is a right to file affidavits and, moreover, CBI filed as many as three affidavits and did not take the permission of the court.

The high court was urged by the Solicitor General that the affidavits cannot be accepted on the ground of delay as they were filed after the completion of his arguments.

The CBI, which has filed an application seeking transfer of the Narada sting tape case from the special CBI court to the high court, has made the chief minister and the law minister parties in its plea there.

The agency claimed that while the Chief Minister had sat on a dharna at the CBI office in Kolkata soon after the arrest of the four accused, Ghatak had been present at the Banshall Court premises during the virtual hearing of the case before the special CBI court there on May 17.

Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra, and former mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI in connection with the Narada sting tape case.

(With Agency Inputs)