Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Wednesday, could not collect the voice samples of Sujay Krishna Bhadra, a prime accused in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal, as the latter failed to turn up at a special court in Kolkata on medical grounds.
Earlier, on January 21, the central agency officials failed to collect the voice samples of Bhadra as he did not appear before the court.
On January 22, the judge of the special court fixed January 29 (Wednesday) as the next date for the collection of voice samples and also directed the presence of Bhadra at the court.
However, the accused did not appear at the court this time too, due to which his voice samples could not be collected.
Instead, a communication was sent from Presidency Central Correctional Home in South Kolkata intimating court that Bhadra was admitted to the jail’s hospital as he was unwell.
Bhadra, who was granted bail in the case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe, could not walk out of the prison as he was arrested by CBI in the same case.
Earlier, ED sleuths collected the voice samples of Bhadra.
The trial process in the ED-registered case at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act ((PMLA) in Kolkata began this month. There are a total of 53 accused, 29 individuals and 24 corporate entities or trusts, as mentioned in the subsequent chargesheets filed by ED in the matter.
Besides Bhadra, the other prime accused individuals in the case are the former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, his close aide Arpita Mukherjee and his son-in-law Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya.
Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, a trust named after Chatterjee’s deceased wife is also named in the ED charge sheet as an accused entity. It is alleged that the ill-proceeds were shown as donations to this particular trust and thus diverted.
(IANS)
