Bengal's former education minister Partha Chatterjee gets bail in school jobs scam case after 3 yrs

Kolkata: Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, one of the key accused in the SSC recruitment scam, was released on bail on Tuesday, three years and three months after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 23, 2022. Chatterjee, who had been admitted to a private hospital in the Mukundapur area of south-east Kolkata for the past 203 days, was released from judicial custody after furnishing his bail bond. His release followed the completion of the examination of witnesses before a trial court on Monday in connected cases being probed by the CBI. He had earlier been granted bail in the ED cases, while the Supreme Court had subsequently granted him bail in the connected CBI cases with the condition that he would not be released until the agency completed its examination of witnesses. Chatterjee's followers had gathered in significant numbers in front of the hospital, shouting 'Partha da zindabad' slogans amid an emotionally charged atmosphere when the former Trinamool Congress secretary general boarded his car and headed for his Naktala residence in south Kolkata.