Kolkata: Sujit Bose, the former West Bengal fire services minister, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier this year in a money laundering case, will have to spend his days behind bars during the forthcoming Durga Puja, beginning from this weekend.
A single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Tuesday, rejected Bose’s bail plea which he moved through his counsel. However, Justice Ghosh did not cite any specific reason behind the decision to reject his bail plea.
Bose had been the main patron behind the community Durga Puja organised by Sreebhumi Sporting Club at Lake Town on the northern outskirts of Kolkata. Following the rejection of his bail now, he will not be able to participate in that Puja this year, the entire planning of which was done by him till last year.
To recall, in August this year another single-judge Bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh recused from passing a verdict on the bail petition of Bose, though the hearing was concluded at her Bench earlier.
According to her, one of the counsels of the former minister came to her chamber when she was not there and asked her personal secretary to hand over a case-related file from her chamber. Justice Suvra Ghiosh also said that the entire development was extremely unfortunate, and hence she had informed the matter to the then Calcutta High Court’s Acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty.
Thereafter, she announced her decision to recuse herself from the case.
Thereafter, the matter was referred to the Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh and on Tuesday he rejected Bose’s bail plea.
Bose was arrested by the ED officials on May 11 this year. He was accused of illegally recommending the names of job seekers in the South Dum Dum Municipality.
The ED had earlier claimed in a trial court that the names of more or less 150 job seekers were in that list who were recommended by the former minister.
The probe agency also claimed that money earned through corruption was deposited into bank accounts of Bose and his family members.
Bose was questioned several times by the ED officials before he was finally arrested on May 11.
(IANS)
