The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to former Trinamool Congress youth leader Kuntal Ghosh in a corruption case related to the West Bengal primary school recruitment scam. A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjwal Bhuyan said that the trial in this case is unlikely to be completed in the near future, while Ghosh has been in custody for the last 19 months.
Kuntal Ghosh will be out of jail after more than a year, as he was granted bail on November 20 in a money laundering case related to the scam.
The court said, it is too early to predict the outcome of the case. In the present circumstances, keeping the accused in custody indefinitely would not be in accordance with the system established in law. The court granted bail to Ghosh and asked him not to leave West Bengal without the prior permission of the court or the investigating agency.
The Supreme Court has said that Kuntal Ghosh will not hold any public office and will not make any statement in the media regarding the merits and demerits of the investigation. The court said that we cannot stop him from taking any post in the political party. The bench directed him not to influence or tamper with the evidence in the case.
During the hearing, advocate MS Khan, appearing for Kuntal Ghosh, presented two orders of the trial court in support of his argument that the trial would not be completed in the near future, as the CBI has not yet filed the final charge sheet in the case.
MS Khan said that the trial court, in its orders passed on January 16 and July, had indicated that the investigation was ongoing and it was not possible to start the trial in the near future. He said that I (the client) have been in custody for the last 19 months and charges have not been framed against me yet. Additionally, an application has been filed to transfer the case to another court.
The bench asked the CBI counsel as to how much time it would take for the agency to complete the investigation. The court was informed that the investigating agency is planning to file a supplementary chargesheet in December as it has to examine the witnesses whom the accused has deceived.
The lawyer said the allegations against him are serious as he created a parallel website similar to that of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, where fake results of ineligible job seekers were posted and crores of rupees were extorted from them.
The bench said that due to the nature of the allegations and the nature of evidence collected by the CBI, it was natural for the agency to seek extension and file the charge sheet, so that the way for the trial could be cleared. On November 20, the Calcutta High Court had granted conditional bail to Ghosh, one of the main accused in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case related to the school recruitment scam.
Kuntal Ghosh was arrested by ED on January 21, 2023 in a money laundering case. After this, on February 20, 2023, he was arrested by the CBI in a corruption case related to the West Bengal Primary School Recruitment Scam.