West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court 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 arrest of four Trinamool Congress
leaders on May 17 by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the
Narada sting tape case.

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IMAGE: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee outside the CBI office at Nizam Palace in
Kolkata. Photograph: PTI Photo
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 on June 22 the appeal filed by
Ghatak.

The top court On June 18 had 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.

On June 9, a five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, hearing CBI's application
for transfer of the Narada sting tape case from the special CBI court to the high
court, had said it will decide later on considering the affidavits by the Banerjee
and Ghatak on their respective roles on the day of the arrest of four leaders in
connection with the case.

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Senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Vikas Singh, appearing for Ghatak and the state
government, had said it was necessary to bring on record of the high court the
affidavits as they deal with the roles of the persons concerned on May 17.

The law minister was attending the cabinet meeting and was not in the court
premises at the time of hearing, Dwivedi had said, adding that even the CBI
officials were not there on the spot as the lawyer for the agency addressed the
court virtually.

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

Singh had 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, which on June 9 decided to consider later the affidavits of
Banerjee and Ghatak, 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.

It had 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 which is
investigating the Narada sting tape case on a 2017 order of the high court.

The five-judge bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and justices I
P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee, had adjourned the hearing
in the matter.

The bench had granted interim bail on May 28 to the four accused.

The special CBI court had granted them bail on May 17 itself, but the order was
stayed by the high court, which remanded them to judicial custody.

They had been placed under house arrest on May 21 by the high court, modifying its
earlier order of stay on the bail.

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.