Bengal school job case: Special court rejects Partha Chatterjee's bail plea

Kolkata, April 17 (IANS) A Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here on Thursday rejected the bail petition of former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case.

This bail was rejected in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the matter. Earlier, Chatterjee was granted bail in another case, registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which had been conducting a parallel probe in a school job case.

Chatterjee was arrested initially in July 2022 by the ED officials, and since then, he has been behind bars. Later, the CBI also showed him as arrested.

While rejecting the bail petition by Chatterjee, the special court judge observed that from the available evidence on the charges in the case, as mentioned in the charge sheet, it is clear that the accused had a direct connection with the alleged irregularities in school job recruitments.

The judge also observed that the accused was unable to present any strong logic justifying his bail petition. As per the judge’s observation, since the entire investigation in the matter is at an extremely crucial phase now, there were chances of the process facing hurdles if the bail is granted to the former minister.

Initially, the special court was supposed to pronounce the order in the case on April 11. However, it did not happen on that date since the judge concerned was absent. Thursday was fixed as the date for the pronouncement of the order, and the special court rejected the bail petition.

Another bail petition by Chatterjee in the school job case is also pending at the Supreme Court.

Chatterjee is an accused in both cases of recruitment irregularities, the first being those of secondary and higher secondary teachers and non-teaching staff in Group-C and Group-D categories, the recruitment process for which is conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) and the second being the appointment for primary teachers the recruitment process for which is being conducted by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).

--IANS

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