Narada case: Calcutta HC orders house arrest of four Bengal politicians

TMC leaders Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, who are also the cabinet ministers of the Mamata Banerjee government, the party's heavyweight lawmaker Madan Mitra and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI on Monday.

The high court has referred the matter to a three-judge bench as Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee differed over their judgement.

While the Chief Justice wanted house arrest, Justice Banerjee spoke in favour of a bail. 

Subrata Mukherjee's advocate Manishankar Chatterjee said, "One of our lawyers, Kalyan Banerjee, has pleaded for the constitution of the larger bench as soon as possible and the beginning of the hearing in the weekend only."

Though all were granted an interim bail by a special CBI court on Monday, the high court had put a stay on the bail on the same day.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is representing the TMC leaders in the court, has opposed the house arrest order and pleaded for the lifting of the stay on bail.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the CBI, has opposed the house arrest order as well as the bail.

News portal Narada News released several sting operation footage, where TMC's leaders, ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen allegedly taking bribes.

Questions are also raised as to why several politicians, who crossed over from the TMC to the country's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were not arrested by the probe agency.