The arrest of two Bengal ministers and two other senior politicians in the Narada case was an attempt to “browbeat” Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, said former Union minister for law and justice Ashwani Kumar.

The CBI had arrested Trinamul Congress ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, party MLA Madan Mitra and former Calcutta mayor Sovan Chatterjee from their homes on Monday morning.

Raking up the five-year-old case, that too, at a time when the state is struggling to combat Covid-19, serves the BJP’s malicious intention after its resounding defeat in the Assembly elections, said Kumar.

“The imprint of partisan politics is writ large in the blatant abuse of prosecutorial processes by the CBI against political adversaries of the ruling BJP,” he added.

The veteran Congress leader went on: “Resort to arbitrary criminal prosecution and custody of the accused by enforcement agencies to deprive citizens of their fundamental liberties is clearly against the first principles of our libertarian Constitution. Detention of the accused militates against the recent Supreme Court judgments that scoff at routine incarceration of political activists.”

The former Union law minister said the arrest of the accused, who were “public men of high standing and not expected to tamper with the course of justice”, was clearly an abuse of authority.

“The arrest for alleged corruption is a brazen attempt to browbeat chief minister Mamata Banerjee after her triumphant win in the Assembly elections,” he said.

Many were of the view that such a move, that too amid the raging second wave of Covid-19, was a precursor to the imposition of the President’s rule in Bengal citing “lawlessness”.

“The situation in Bengal certainly does not warrant such an extreme step. Its people have recently elected a popular government and reposed faith in the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. Even a contemplation of such a move would be an assault on democracy and destructive of the federal and basic structure of the Constitution,” said Kumar.

“Bail and not jail is the fundamental tenet of our criminal and libertarian jurisprudence. The CBI’s insistence on custody of the accused is, therefore, wholly unsustainable in law. The manner of exercise of power of law enforcement in a democracy is accountable to constitutional imperatives. And it is important that justice is not only done but is also seen to be done,” he said.

Although a special CBI court in Calcutta had granted interim bail to the arrested quartet on Monday evening, the high court later at night overturned the order. The high court remanded the four in judicial custody.