Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday concluded hearing on former state Education minister Partha Chatterjee’s bail plea in the primary teachers’ recruitment case but reserved its order.
The bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh heard the matter. Chatterjee, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2022 in connection with the school jobs scam, has been in custody since then. While the Supreme Court has already granted him bail in the ED case and he has also secured bail in the CBI’s recruitment cases, his release now hinges on the outcome of the primary teachers’ case.
Earlier this month, a special CBI court in Alipore granted him bail in the cases relating to recruitment of teachers for classes IX-X and XI-XII against a personal bond of Rs 7,000. If bail is granted in the primary teachers’ matter, his lawyers said, he could walk out of jail.
Investigators had seized around Rs 50 crore in cash and valuables reportedly worth about Rs 60 crore from the residences of Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee.
While Arpita has since secured bail, Chatterjee remains in custody. The CBI has argued against his release, describing him as the “main conspirator”
in the scam.