Mita Mukherjee
Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee accused in the cash for job scam case was denied bail on Wednesday because a two-judge Division bench of Calcutta High Court did not pass a unanimous verdict.
While Justice Arijit Bandyopadhyay approved the bail application of the former education minister and eight others who appealed before the Bench, Justice Apurba Sinha Roy disapproved granting bail to Chatterjee and the four accused including former state school service commission chairman Subiresh Bhattacharrya, former president of the West Bengal state secondary education board Kalyanmoy Ganguly, and two other officials of the education department, Ashok Saha and Shanti Prasad Sinha.
The case will be referred to T. S. Sivagnanam, the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and he will create a third bench to decide on the applications of Chatterjee and the four accused officials.
Denying the bail applications, Justice Apurba Sinha Roy in his opinion said Partha Chatterjee and the other four accused were “masterminds” of the alleged scam and they could influence the case if they are granted bail because they are still powerful.
“… The record reveals that the present applicants were the mastermind and they orchestrated the entire scam. They cannot be equated with the accused like Prasanna Kumar Roy, Jiban Krishna Saha who actually acted as touts or collecting agents. The five applicants namely, Dr Subires Bhattacharya, @ Subiresh Bhattacharjee, Sri Ashok Kumar Saha, Dr Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Sri Santi Prasad Sinha, Dr Partha Chatterjee as stated above are still influential, and there are chances of manipulating, influencing, intimidating witnesses, if they are enlarged on bail. In view of the above, I am not inclined to allow the prayers for bail of the said applicants at this stage. Accordingly, the bail applications are rejected…” Justice Sinha Roy said.
Allowing the bail prayer of the five applicants Justice Arijit Bandyopadhyay stated, “ Keeping an under-trial in incarceration for an indefinite period of time would tantamount to pre-trial conviction. That is unknown tour criminal jurisprudence. The allegations against an accused person may be extremely grave. Still, the same have to be proved in a duly held trial before a Competent Court. An accused person cannot be detained in judicial custody for a long period of time merely on the basis of allegations which are yet to be proved. The fundamental right of a person including an under-trial, as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India, includes his right to personal liberty and speedy conclusion of a trial. Such fundamental right is paramount and overrides all other considerations in a criminal trial, irrespective of the nature and gravity of the charge. If the State or the legal system does not have the means to conclude a criminal trial within a reasonable period of time, the prosecution should not oppose the accused persons’ prayer for bail, other than in exceptional circumstances some of which I have discussed above…. In fine all the 14 bail applications stands allowed.”
Chatterjee was arrested in July 2022 by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the state school teacher recruitment scam case and was later roped in by the CBI.
After Chatterjee’s arrest the ED had seized nearly Rs 50 crores from the residence of a close aide of Chatterjee who is still in jail custody.
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