– Mita Mukherjee
The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the CBI’s alleged cash-for-jobs case for appointing teachers in state-aided secondary schools.
A bench comprising Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh also granted bail to two other accused officials including Subires Bhattacharya and Shanti Prasad Sinha.
However, Chatterjee will remain in jail as his bail plea in another case on recruitment of state-aided primary school teachers is pending before Calcutta High Court. The top court passed the order noting that the former minister had been in jail for nearly three years.
The bench questioned additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju, appearing for the CBI, on the duration of incarceration. The judges asked,” how long should he be inside?”
Senior advocate Siddharth Mridul, former Chief Justice of Manipur High Court appearing for Chatterjee told the court that Chatterjee has been in custody for three years without the trial beginning.
The bench ordered that the charges will be framed within four weeks and begin examining witnesses within two months.
The bench observed the investigation was complete and the chargesheet had been filed and the accused were no longer required to be probed.
The case is related to alleged irregularities in teacher recruitment that took place when Chatterjee was the education minister of Bengal. He was arrested in 2022 when he was holding other ministerial portfolios.
He was sacked from the state cabinet and suspended from Trinamool Congress soon after he was arrested.
Calcutta High Court rejected his bail plea following which he appealed before the apex court.
The CBI has alleged that the former minister was the mastermind behind cash-for-job scam and he had manipulated the recruitment process within the West Bengal Central School Service Commission, that recruits teachers for state-aided secondary schools.
Meanwhile Calcutta High Court on Monday deferred the bail plea of the former education minister and granted the CBI a week’s time in connection with the alleged corruption in hiring teachers for state-aided primary schools in Bengal.
Also read: West Bengal: Over 5 lakh apply so far for 35,726 teacher vacancies
