HC rejects Sujoy Bhadra’s anticipatory bail plea

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of recruitment scam accused Sujay Krishna Bhadra in the CBI case, observing that the application was not maintainable.

The court had recently granted conditional bail to Bhadra in the case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case. The court on Monday observed that Bhadra had missed some court appearances. Significantly, he had failed to appear in court on two occasions in November citing health issues, with jail authorities submitting his medical reports.

The CBI counsel had informed the bench that a production warrant has already been issued against Bhadra in the matter and the agency’s officials might take him into custody at any time.

When the court questioned as to why the agency has not taken Bhadra into their custody yet, the counsel said that the correctional home authorities had intimated CBI officials that the current medical conditions of Bhadra are not suitable for being taken into custody.

The CBI counsel argued that since the production warrant has already been issued and taking Bhadra into custody is a matter of time, the plea for anticipatory bail should not be accepted.

Bhadra’s counsel is learnt to have argued that since the production warrant is yet to be effected there is no legal hurdle in making the anticipatory bail plea.

However, based on certain technical grounds the court observed that the anticipatory bail application was not maintainable and that Bhadra can seek other judicial remedies for relief.