Narada case: Mirza remanded in judicial custody till Oct 15

A special CBI court on Monday remanded suspended IPS officer S M H Mirza in judicial custody till October 15 in the Narada tapes scandal case. Rejecting Mirza's bail plea, Judge Anupam Mukhopadhyay remanded him in 14 days' judicial custody till October 15 on a prayer by a CBI lawyer.

Mirza was the Burdwan superintendent of police when the sting operation was allegedly carried out by Samuel Mathews of Narada news portal in 2014. Mirza was arrested last week and produced in the court, which had initially remanded him in the agency's custody for five days.

Opposing the suspended officer's bail plea, the CBI counsel on Monday prayed for his judicial custody, claiming that he is an IPS officer and an influential person. He said Mirza, if released on bail, may try to influence witnesses.

Mirza's lawyer, however, submitted that the officer was suspended in November 2017 and as such there was no question of him being an influential person. The lawyer also submitted that Mirza has cooperated with the investigation all along and has appeared before the CBI whenever he was summoned by the investigators.

The purpose of Mirza's arrest has been served, with he being questioned along with another accused on Monday and the subsequent reconstruction of the events surrounding the alleged pay-offs which happened at a flat in south Kolkata, the counsel added.

The tapes had surfaced ahead of the 2016 West Bengal assembly polls and 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 a public interest litigation which sought an impartial investigation into the footages.

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