Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Friday granted conditional bail to former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee in the teacher and school staff recruitment case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation, lawyers who attended the hearing said.
“The single bench of justice Suvra Ghosh granted the bail but directed Chatterjee to surrender his passport and not to leave the jurisdiction of Kolkata’s Alipore court where the trial has started. The court also directed that the Trinamool Congress MLA cannot be appointed to any public office until the trial ends,” a lawyer said, requesting anonymity.
Chatterjee has been in judicial custody since 2022 when he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate which is conducting a parallel investigation into the bribe-for-job case. The TMC suspended him after his arrest but he continues to represent Kolkata’s Behala West assembly seat.
In December last year, the Supreme Court granted bail to Chatterjee in the ED case but the Calcutta high court denied him bail in the CBI case.
The trial started after the CBI filed its final charges at Alipore court on September 11 against Chatterjee, ex-minister Paresh Adhikari, the latter’s daughter, and 18 others in connection with the 2016 recruitment test for Class 11 and 12 teachers in state-run schools. The final charges in connection with the recruitment of Class 9 and 10 teachers were filed a few days later.
“Although Chatterjee has been granted bail by the higher courts it is not clear whether he can walk out of jail right now since the trial has begun. Several witnesses are yet to be examined by the trial courts where his bail petitions were turned down earlier as the federal agencies argued that he may influence witnesses,” the lawyer said.
In January, the ED framed charges against Chatterjee, his aide Arpita Mukherjee, ex-state primary education board president and legislator Manik Bhattacharya and 51 others at Kolkata’s Bankshall court, where Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases are heard.
“This is a legal process. The party has nothing to say,” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said on Friday’s bail order.
The ED arrested Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee on July 23, 2022. ED has said in its chargesheets that it has traced cash, jewellery and immovable property worth ₹103.10 crore linked to the duo.
The investigation started in May 2022 when the high court ordered CBI to probe the appointments of teachers and non-teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021 when Chatterjee was the education minister. It is alleged that a section of appointees paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.