HC adjourns Narada case hearing till August 26

The Calcutta High Court today adjourned the hearing in the Narada case till August 26, extending the interim stay on an investigation by the Kolkata Police into the sting operation.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Arijit Banerjee adjourned the hearing as state minister Subrata Mukherjee and former minister Madan Mitra were yet to file affidavits with regard to a report by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh.
The court directed that the interim stay on the probe by the Kolkata Police into the Narada sting operation would continue till the next date of hearing on August 26.

Counsel for Mitra submitted that as his client was in judicial custody, he had not been able to affirm his affidavit and prayed for time to file it by Monday.
The bench had on August 5 stayed the investigation by Kolkata Police into the Narada sting tapes which purportedly showed senior Trinamool Congress leaders taking money.
The bench had then observed that when the matter was already being probed by the high court, a parallel investigation cannot be held by the police.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on June 17 ordered a probe by the Kolkata Police into the sting operation.

The bench had on August 5 said that advocates on record involved in the matter might go through the report of CFSL, Chandigarh, and submit in affidavit form any point they want to raise over its contents.
The high court had sent the Narada sting tapes to Chandigarh CFSL after its counterpart in Hyderabad had expressed its inability to analyse the genuineness of the recordings.
Mathew Samuel, the editor of Narada News, had claimed that the alleged sting operation had been recorded using an iPhone, transferred to a laptop and then to a pendrive, all of which were sent by the high court to CFSL, Chandigarh for examination of the genuineness of the recordings.