Congress picks clear side in TMC vs CBI faceoff over Narada case arrests; accuses BJP

Senior Congress leader and former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Monday strongly opposed the arrest of TMC leaders in the Narada scam and termed the CBI move as a blatant abuse of prosecutorial processes.

"The imprint of partisan politics is writ large in the blatant abuse of prosecutorial processes by the CBI against political adversaries of the ruling BJP. Resort to arbitrary criminal prosecution and custody of the accused by enforcement agencies to deprive citizens of their fundamental liberties is clearly against the first principles of our libertarian constitution.

Detention of the accused militates against recent judgments of the Supreme Court that scoff at routine incarceration of political activists," Kumar told ANI.

The Congress leader stated that bail is the fundamental tenet of our criminal and libertarian jurisprudence and not jail. He claimed that the arrest is a brazen attempt to browbeat Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after her triumphant win in the recent Bengal Assembly elections.

"The CBI's insistence on custody of the accused is, therefore, wholly unsustainable in law. The manner of exercise of the power of law enforcement in a democracy is accountable to constitutional imperatives and it is important that justice is not only done but is also seen to be done," added Kumar.

Top TMC leaders arrested; later bailed

Earlier on Monday, the CBI arrested top state ministers Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra as well as former minister Sovan Chatterjee in connection with the Narada sting case in which politicians were purportedly caught taking money on camera. They were later let out on bail by a special CBI court, but not before the CBI office was gheraoed by TMC supporters with CM Mamata Banerjee staging a 6 hour dharna at the CBI office, daring CBI to arrest her as well.

The Narada sting tapes, made public before the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016, had recorded TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs allegedly receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of promised favours. The sting operation was conducted by Mathew Samuel of the Narada News portal. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017.

(With inputs from agency)