Kunal Ghosh released from jail on Mahashashti

Suspended Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh was released from jail on Friday.

After being granted bail from the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, he was ultimately released from police custody on the day of Mahashashti, the sixth day of Durga Puja.

Ghosh had been arrested for his alleged involvement in the Saradha Group scam more than two years ago.

The high court has granted him interim bail till November 11 and instructed him to submit his passport to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He has also been ordered not to leave the jurisdiction of Narkeldanga Police Station.

The Division Bench of the high court, consisting of Justice Ashim Kumar Roy and Justice Malay Marut Banerjee had asked the CBI, during a hearing on Tuesday, about the principles of granting bail to Ghosh, a journalist-turned-politician.

Ghosh had been charge-sheeted by the CBI in October 2014, but there had been no significant development in the case number six, pertaining to Saradha Tours and Travels Private Limited, in the last two years.

The CBI is currently probing the Saradha scam and has made several high-profile arrests in the case.

One of the accused arrested was Ghosh, who was serving at a top position in Saradha Media and Saradha Tours and Travels Private Limited, among other business interests.

The offence that Ghosh allegedly committed warrants three years of conviction and he has already spent two years, 10 months and 11 days in jail, without getting bail. During Tuesday’s hearing, the Bench expressed its astonishment at the fact that Ghosh had been confined for so long.

The Bench then instructed the CBI to inform it about the principles based on which Ghosh could be granted bail.

It may be recalled that Justice Roy had given a book to CBI lawyer R. Raghavacharyulu in the court premises while the hearing was going on in the Saradha case.

The judge then instructed him to read the law book to know whether or not the offence committed by Ghosh can be identified as economic scam.

The context was raised by Raghavacharyulu, who argued that Ghosh was involved in an economic scam and thus cannot be given bail.

In reply to the lawyer’s claim, Justice Roy handed him the book.

After the hearing on Wednesday, Ghosh succeeded in getting bail after paying a bail bond of Rs two lakh. He will only be allowed to go to his home on Thursday.

The court granted him bail for two reasons: that he had been imprisoned of more than two years and that his mother is ailing.