All leaders can work from home, including Firhad Hakim for supervising COVID-19 work

West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim — who is supervising the COVID-19 work in Kolkata area — can continue to work from home during his “house arrest”.

The Calcutta High Court has said today that Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim West Bengal ministers, Madan Mitra a Trinamool MLA and Sovon Chatterjee former Kolkata Mayor and former member of the ruling party will remain under house arrest for now. But the matter will now be heard by a larger three-member bench after the two-member bench differed in their opinions. Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal ordered the house arrest of the leaders but Justice Arijit Banerjee ordered for interim bail.

All four leaders were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday in connection with the Narada case. On that day, the lower court had ordered their bail, but the CBI moved the Calcutta High Court’s division bench. Hearing was conducted on Wednesday, but it was scheduled for hearing again for Thursday. However, the hearing was cancelled on Thursday as notified by the court.

Meanwhile, the court has said that all four leaders can continue to work from home, including Firhad Hakim, who is supervising the COVID-19 vaccination and other related work in the Kolkata area. His arrest could affect the drive against COVID-19 in this time, as argued by his lawyers in court.