On Monday evening, West Bengal ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chattopadhyay, who were arrested by CBI in the Narada bribery case, were granted bail by a Sessions court. A virtual hearing was held from Nizam Palace. The arrested leaders were produced at Bankshall Court through this virtual hearing.

Earlier in the day, immediately after the arrests took place, hundreds of TMC activists took out protest rallies, in the city and elsewhere in West Bengal, flouting lockdown guidelines.

Lawyer Anindya Raut said that special CBI court judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee after hearing their lawyers and the counsel for the agency.
They were produced before the court through the virtual mode hearing. The four were kept at the CBI office in Nizam Palace following their arrest in the morning from their homes in different parts of Kolkata.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other TMC leaders had rushed to the CBI office after the arrest. Sources in the central probe agency said that Ms. Banerjee told the officers that they have to arrest her if they want her to leave Nizam Palace. The sources said that Banerjee’s actions are akin to interference in the probe handed over to the agency by the Calcutta High Court. When she left the place in the evening, Banerjee told reporters, “Court will give the decision.”

Agitation and violence across the city and state

At the CBI’s Nizam Palace office, TMC supporters broke barriers set up before the main gate. They took to sloganeering against Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They also threw bricks and bottles at the central forces who stood guard in front of the office premises.

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Many of them also protested in front of the Raj Bhavan against Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who had recently sanctioned the prosecution of the four leaders. Protests broke out in several other areas, including Arambagh in Hooghly district and Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas, where the agitators burnt tyres and blocked roads, demanding immediate release of the party leaders.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra tweeted,

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the party’s youth wing president, urged the demonstrators to have faith in the judiciary. The Diamond Harbour MP and CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew tweeted,

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Earlier TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee alleged that governor Jagdeep Dhankar was being “vindictive” in his actions, referring to the sanctioning of prosecution of the TMC leaders in the Narada case. He said, “The governor is unhappy with the mandate that Mamata Banerjee got this time. The governor has become a bloodsucker. He is now trying to secure a ticket before the 2024 elections from BJP that is why he is doing whatever he pleases against TMC. You know SC made a judgment during Covid-19 times that police cannot unnecessarily detain, arrest any person. Despite that, CBI & police have arrested (our members).”

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The daily passengers to Bengal, who were summarily rejected by the people of the state during elections, have hatched a conspiracy for backdoor entry, amid this pandemic-induced crisis.”