Kolkata: A special court here on Thursday granted bail to another accused in the multi- crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal, Santanu Bandopadhyay.
He is an expelled Trinamool Congress leader from Hooghly district of West Bengal.
He is the sixth accused in the school-job case to be granted bail by different courts over a period of time.
On Thursday, the special court granted him bail against a security bond of Rs 1,00,000. The court also imposed a number of restrictions on his movements during his bail period.
First his movements will be restricted within his native district of Hooghly and three other adjacent districts. Secondly he will have to appear in front of the investigating officials whenever he is summoned. Finally, he will have to submit his personal mobile number to the investigating official and he should always be reachable there.
Like many, Bandopadhyay was initially arrested by the officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the school-job case. Later he was also shown arrested by the sleuths of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had been conducting a parallel probe in the school job case.
A CBI counsel had claimed in the court a number of times that Bandopadhyay’s involvement in the matter was established through his conversation in a number of voice clippings that the investigating officials secured during the course of investigation.
CBI even collected the vice samples of Bandopadhyay to match them with those audio clippings. The central agency counsel always opposed his bail pleas and claimed that being an influential leader of the state’s ruling party in Hooghly district, he might try to tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses if granted bail.
Bandopadhyay was also employed with state-run power distribution utility West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL). However, in March 2023, after his arrested by ED officials, WBSEDCL suspended him, since as per rule any government is in custody (police or judicial) for 48 hours or more will have to be placed under suspension from the time he is taken in custody.
(IANS)
