HC gives split verdict on bail of Partha, 4 others in SSC scam case

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday delivered a split verdict on the bail petition of five accused, including Partha Chatterjee, in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam case where they were indicted by the CBI.

The bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray gave the split verdict.

Justice Banerjee approved the bail of all the nine accused who appealed before the Bench but Justice Ray decided against granting bail to Chatterjee and four other former education department officials — Subiresh Bhattacharya, Ashok Saha, Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay and Shanti Prasad Sinha.

Both judges, however, agreed on granting bail to four other suspects in this case namely Kaushik Ghosh, Subrata Samanta Roy, Sk Ali Imam and Chandan alias Ranjan Mondal.

They were accused of acting as conduits and were slapped with charges of acting as agents and middlemen in the cash-for-jobs case.

Sources said that the case involving the five accused where the court failed to reach a clear verdict is now likely to be transferred to Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam who would, in turn, assign a third Bench to take a conclusive decision in the matter.

Chatterjee had also moved a bail application in cases registered against him by the ED.

The Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of Calcutta High Court had also dismissed that prayer after the hearing concluded in April this year.

Following Chatterjee’s arrest in 2022, the ED recovered a staggering amount of around Rs 50 crore in cash and additional gold ornaments and foreign currencies from two Kolkata apartments owned by his ‘close associate’ Arpita Mukherjee, who is currently lodged in Presidency Correctional Home.