Narada tapes scandal: CBI court rejects Mirza\'s bail plea

Kolkata: A special CBI court here on Wednesday rejected a bail plea of suspended IPS officer S M H Mirza, who was arrested by the central investigating agency (CIA) in connection with the Narada tapes case.

The special court judge Anupam Mukhopadhyay extended Mirza's judicial remand till November 13 on a prayer by the CBI.

Mirza will be produced before the court again on November 13.

Praying for his bail, Mirza's lawyer Sayan De submitted that he has been in judicial remand for 30 days and has not been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigators during the period.

The CBI lawyer opposed the prayer and submitted that Mirza is an influential person and enlarging him on bail at this stage may hamper the investigation.

Mirza was the Burdwan superintendent of police when the sting operation was allegedly carried out by Mathew Samuel, editor of Narada news portal, in 2014.

He was arrested on September 26 this year and produced before the court, which had initially remanded him to CBI custody for five days.

The court had remanded Mirza to judicial custody for 14 days on September 30 and had extended it twice.

The Narada tapes had surfaced ahead of the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls.

In the tapes, persons resembling senior Trinamool Congress leaders and Mirza were seen accepting money from representatives of a fictitious company in return for favours.

The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the Narada sting operation case on public interest litigation, which sought an impartial investigation into the footage.

 

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