Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday posed questions to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over its approach to show a prime accused in the multi-crore cash for school job case in West Bengal as arrested.
A division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth questioned why the CBI, as an investigating agency in the case, is not directly arresting the prime accused Sujay Krishna Bhadra at the correctional home where he is housed now and instead trying to get clearance for the arrest from the court.
It also reminded the agency that a special court, on November 29, has already granted CBI permission to directly arrest Bhadra at the correctional home.
Bhadra is currently under treatment at the jail hospital of Presidency Central Correctional Home in Kolkata. He had been in judicial custody since he was arrested by the officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case, last year,
Recently, the CBI too had taken the initiative to show Bhadra as arrested in the case. But repeated attempts by the CBI officials to present him at the special court for that purpose failed as the jail authorities informed that Bhadra’s medical conditions were not fit for his presentation at the court.
The division bench on Monday also questioned why CBI is not making the arrangement to present Bhadra virtually through video-conferencing at the special court. It observed that if CBI officials wish to, they can arrest Bhadra officially at the correctional home only.
Meanwhile, a single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh, on December 6, granted bail to Bhadra in the cases registered against him by ED in the school job case. However, the bench imposed several restrictions on his bail including submission of his passport and a bar on leaving the boundary of Kolkata till further court orders, among others.
