High Court single bench denies bail to Partha and four others in CBI case

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday denied bail to former education minister Partha Chatterjee and four others in the CBI case relating to the SSC recruitment scam while questioning the delay by the state government in granting sanction for prosecution without which the trial of all the five accused cannot be started. The single bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty was appointed to decide the bail matter of Partha Chatterjee, Subiresh Bhattacharya, Ashok Saha, Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay and Shanti Prasad Sinha after the division bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray gave a dissenting judgement.

In the single bench’s judgement, the court agreed with the observations in the dissenting judgement of Justice Apurba Sinha Ray in denying bail to all five. The CBI counsel had argued that bail to them may lead to tampering with evidence and influencing vulnerable witnesses.

Since Chatterjee’s bail plea was moved on the touchstone of Article 21, the single bench observed, the guarantee under Article 21 embraces both the life and liberty of the accused as well as interest of the victim, his near and dear ones, as well as of the community at large and therefore cannot be alienated from each other with levity.

“If any undeserving candidate is allowed to top exams by corrupt means, not only will the society be deprived of deserving candidates, but it will be unfair for those students who have honestly worked hard and are ultimately disentitled to a good rank by fraudulent practices prevalent in those examinations,” the court said.

It was added: “The allegations against the petitioners are very serious in nature, which are reflected from the excerpts of the documents on record. The offences alleged, if proved, may jeopardize the credibility of the education system of the state.” Questioning the state’s “stoic silence” on granting prosecution sanction for the rest four, except Chatterjee, the single bench observed: “The direction to take a decision towards grant of sanction within a time-frame is in aid of fair and speedy trial. Such a decision taken as expeditiously as possible would remove the hurdles towards commencement of trial and conclusion of the depositions of the vulnerable witnesses”.