CBI withdraws appeal in SC against Calcutta HC order placing TMC leaders under house arrest
“We have to see if bail has to be granted or not. For other issues, other remedies are there. Take action against such officials,” the court remarked.
“We also have been tried to be pressurized. I was hearing a anticipatory bail plea in Aurangabad in 2013 and mahila morcha people came inside court.
Police asked me to not to pass orders but I passed orders in open courtroom,” Justice Gavai recounted.
Justice Gavai also stated that he feels “judiciary including our district judiciary cannot be influenced by mobs.”
“We don’t want to demoralize our judiciary across the country,” said Justice Gavai.
The Solicitor General added that judges are “only humans.”
When SG Mehta pressed on the point that the ‘dharna’ by the Chief Minister and the presence of the law minister in CBI court influenced the bail order granted,
For that Apex court clarified that “liberty of the accused has to be seen in bail plea. Action of others will have to seen later.”
The four leaders, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI on May 17.
A special CBI court had granted them interim bail that evening but it was stayed by the High Court the very same day, the order being pronounced after 10 pm.
However later Hakim is a key minister in the fight against COVID-19 in Kolkata, was allowed to work from home.
The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered the house arrest of the four leaders and denied interim bail. The court also rejected a CBI request to stay its order – which allowed the four to leave jail.
CBI had argued they were influential leaders and could threaten witnesses. It is also demanding that all proceedings to be transferred out of the state.
The CBI had also alleged that the state law minister along with his supporters had thronged the special court complex which heard the bail plea of the four leaders.
