Kolkata: A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday granted bail to former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in two cases registered by the agency relating to irregularities in recruitments of secondary and higher secondary teachers appointed by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
However, even after getting bail in these two cases, the Trinamool leader will not be able to come out of prison immediately, and he will continue to be behind bars because of separate cases registered against him over alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers appointed by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).
On Wednesday, the CBI counsel opposed the bail petition by Chatterjee. The central agency counsel contended that the character of each case in the entire school-job scam was different from the other and in totality the corruption in the matter had a major impact on society.
However, Chatterjee’s counsel argued that the CBI officials had not questioned his client since July 2022.
Finally, after hearing the arguments of both sides, the special court of CBI at Alipore in South Kolkata granted bail subject to several conditions and a bail bond.
Chatterjee had been behind bars since he was arrested in July 2022 by the officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which was conducting a parallel probe in the multi-crore cash for school job case.
Later, the CBI also showed him as arrested in the matter, which made the process of his getting released from behind bars even more complicated.
In August this year, the ED submitted a chargesheet against the West Bengal minister in charge of micro, small, and medium enterprises and textiles department, Chandranath Sinha, at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata in the same school job case.
Sinha is the second Minister in the Bengal government against whom the ED had filed a chargesheet in this case, the first being Chatterjee.
The chargesheet against Sinha, detailed fictitious transactions worth Rs 1.5 crore in two bank accounts of Sinha during 2016 to 2021, considered as the peak period of the school-job scam
(IANS)
