HC undecided on granting bail to Partha Chatterjee,4 others in SSC recruitment scam case

PTI, KOLKATA, NOV 20, 2024 : A two-judge division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday delivered a split verdict on a bail petition filed by former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and four other high-profile accused in the state's School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam case.

Justice Arijit Bandyopadhyay approved the bail for all the nine accused who had appealed before the bench. However, Justice Apurba Sinha Roy decided against granting bail to Chatterjee and four other former education department officials—Subiresh Bhattacharya, Ashok Saha, Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, and Shanti Prasad Sinha.

Both judges, however, agreed on granting bail to four other suspects in the case: Kaushik Ghosh, Subrata Samanta Roy, Sk Ali Imam, and Chandan alias Ranjan Mondal. They were accused of acting as conduits and were charged with serving as agents and middlemen in the cash-for-jobs case.

The case involving the five accused, where the court failed to reach a clear verdict, will now be transferred to Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, who will assign a third bench to make a conclusive decision on the matter.

Chatterjee was arrested on July 23, 2022, by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the state school recruitment scam case and was later indicted by the CBI. The four education department officials were subsequently arrested by the CBI in the same case.

Chatterjee, who has been in jail for over two years, has moved bail applications on multiple occasions before both the High Court and the Supreme Court. His applications were rejected by the court’s Single Bench and Division Benches. The former TMC leader had also moved a bail application in cases filed against him by the Enforcement Directorate. Justice Tirthankar Ghosh's bench of the Calcutta High Court had dismissed that prayer after the hearing concluded in April this year.