The Calcutta High Court today adjourned till November 5 hearing of CBI plea seeking cancellation of bail to West Bengal minister Madan Mitra and directed it to serve notice on him again as his counsels were not present for the hearing.
A division bench, comprising Justice Harish Tandon and Justice I C Das, while adjourning the matter, observed that as it is a prayer for cancellation of bail, Mitra should be given an opportunity to represent his case before the court.
CBI counsel K Raghava Charyulu, appearing before the court at 2.00 pm, submitted that the agency had served notice to Mitra’s counsel at 1.00 pm for hearing the matter before the high court.
No lawyer representing Mitra was present in the court when the hearing commenced.
The bench directed the CBI, which is investigating the Saradha chitfund scam on an order by the Supreme Court, to again serve notice on Mitra and the counsel who represented him before the trial court that granted bail to the state Transport minister on Saturday last.
It fixed the matter for hearing on November 5.
In his short submission before the division bench adourned the matter, the CBI counsel stated that under section 439 of CrPC, the court of sessions must serve notice to the public prosecutor for a bail hearing.
He claimed that no such notice had been served on the CBI counsel and as such the order granting bail to Mitra was illegal.
Earlier in the morning, CBI took leave of the high court to move the prayer for cancellation of bail of Mitra after serving copy of its petition to him.
Mitra was granted bail by a city court on Saturday and went home the day after.
Mitra, who was arrested by the CBI on December 12, 2014, for alleged complicity in the Saradha scam, was granted bail by ACJM (in-charge) of Alipore District and Sessions Court Partha Pratim Das.
Mitra had been in state-run SSKM Hospital since February 11 on the ground of illness and went home from there after being declared fit by a Medical Board of the hospital, only a day after being granted bail.
The minister’s bail prayers had earlier been rejected by trial courts on a few occasions and once by the high court.
Mitra has again been admitted to a private hospital this morning after complaining of chest discomfort, pain and sweating, at around the same time that the CBI moved the high court seeking cancellation of his bail when the court sat for the day at 10.30 am.
( Source – PTI )
