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The Calcutta High Court of Friday adjourned the hearing on the bail prayer of West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra, arrested in connection with Saradha chit fund scam, till Monday on a plea by both his counsel and CBI.
A division bench, comprising Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice Asha Arora, before whom the bail plea came up adjourned the hearing following a plea by Mitra's counsel to fix the matter on Monday, citing difficulties.
The CBI counsel also prayed that the matter be adjourned till the first week of August as its senior counsel who would plead the matter before the court was out of station.
Another division bench had on July 17 recused itself from hearing the bail prayer of Mitra who was arrested by CBI for alleged complicity in the Saradha scam.
The bench, comprising justices Girish Gupta and S S Sadhu, recused itself from hearing the matter on personal grounds and said it would not hear any matter pertaining to the multi-crore rupee scam.
That was the third time that Mitra's bail plea was not heard by the high court wherein the judges recused themselves from hearing the matter on personal grounds.
The matter was then referred back to Chief Justice Manjula Chellur who reassigned the minister's bail plea to the present bench.
Bail prayers of Mitra, who has been in custody for around 220 days, had been rejected by district courts a few times earlier.
The minister is at present in judicial remand but is lodged in state-run SSKM Hospital on health grounds.
