Four leaders — two Bengal ministers, a Trinamul Congress MLA and a former mayor — arrested in the Narada case on May 17 and later granted interim bail by Calcutta High Court presented themselves before the CBI court in Calcutta on Friday to honour the lower court’s order.

The magistrate handling the case fixed June 18 for the next hearing.

Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, transport minister Firhad Hakim, Trinamul Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former Calcutta mayor Sovan Chatterjee had been arrested by the CBI on May 17 for their alleged involvement in the Narada case.

Soon after the arrest, chief minister Mamata Banerjee and a few of her cabinet colleagues reached the CBI office at Nizam Palace here. Trinamul supporters blocked the road outside the CBI office to demand the release of the leaders.

On the same day, the four were virtually produced in the CBI court which granted them bail. The magistrate also asked them to be present before the court on June 4.

On May 17 evening, the CBI moved Calcutta High Court and informed it about the presence of the chief minister and her “associates” at the CBI office and the Trinamul supporters outside the building. During the hearing of the case, the CBI asked the high court to stay the lower court’s order granting bail to the four leaders. Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal stayed the lower court’s bail and sent the four to jail.

Following a split verdict of the division bench on May 19, the four leaders were placed under house arrest and a larger five-judge bench was formed to hear the case. The five-judge bench granted the leaders interim bail with certain riders on May 28.

As the bench is yet to give its order on the CBI petition seeking shifting of the trial from the lower court to the high court, the case in the CBI court still prevails. “To obey the May 17 order, the leaders attended the court today (Friday),” lawyer representing Madan Mitra said.

On Friday, the five-judge bench of Justice Bindal, Justice I.P. Mukerji, Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Arijit Banerjee heard the case for the fifth consecutive day.

CBI counsel and solicitor-general of India Tushar Mehta, whose submission ended on Friday, tried to convince the larger bench that the presence of the chief minister in the CBI office, that of her associates in the CBI court and the blockade on the road outside Nizam Palace by Trinamul supporters might have had influenced the trial court to award bail to the leaders. The counsel prayed to the high court to take over the trial of the case.

Appearing for the two ministers, advocate Abhishekh Manu Singhvi told the court on Friday that Mehta had failed to prove that the incidents had influenced the trial court.

Subrata Mukherjee’s counsel Kalyan Banerjee countered the CBI’s claim that he had threatened a CBI counsel. Banerjee in an affidavit claimed that during his presence at the CBI office on May 17, the DIG CBI had shown him a text message that said that he was acting under pressure from someone. Banerjee, however, said he did not see who had sent the message to the DIG.

Banerjee also sought to refute the CBI’s claim that law minister Malay Ghatak was present in the CBI court. The hearing will resume on June 7.