India News | WB School Recruitment Scam: SC Grants Bail to Ex-TMC Leader Kuntal Ghosh in CBI Case

New Delhi, Nov 29 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday granted regular bail to former TMC youth leader Kuntal Ghosh in a corruption case linked to the West Bengal primary school recruitment scam.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said it was not likely that the trial would be completed in the foreseeable near future in the case wherein Ghosh had been in custody for the past 19 months.

Also Read | Assembly Elections Results 2024: Tough Decisions Have To Be Taken, Need To Learn From Poll Results, Tells Mallikarjun Kharge at CWC Meet.

Ghosh will be walking out of the jail after over a year as he was granted bail in the money laundering case linked to the scam on November 20.

"It is too early to foresee the conclusion of the trial. In the given circumstances, the detention of the accused in custody for the indefinite period will not be in conformity with the settled position in law," the bench said.

Also Read | Eurozone Inflation Up to 2.3% in November.

Ghosh, directed by the top court, to not leave West Bengal without the prior permission of the court or the investigation agency.

It also directed Ghosh not to hold any public post or make statements in the media in relation to the merit of the investigation.

"We can't stop him from holding any post in the political party," the bench observed and directed him to not to influence or tamper with the evidence in the case.

During the hearing, advocate M S Khan, representing Ghosh, referred to two orders of the trial court to buttress his argument that the trial won't be over in the near future as the CBI was yet to file the final chargesheet.

Khan said the trial court in its order of January 16 and the one passed in July indicated the investigation was ongoing and it was not possible to commence the trial in the near future.

"I have been in custody for the past 19-months and charges have not been framed yet against me. Moreover, an application has been moved for transferring the case to another court," Khan said.

The bench asked the CBI counsel about the time it needed to complete the investigation and was informed that the probe agency was planning to file a supplementary chargesheet in December as it had to examine the witnesses defrauded by the accused.

The counsel said the allegations against him were serious as he created a parallel website similar to the West Bengal Primary Education Board, where fake results of undeserving candidates seeking jobs were posted and crores of rupees were collected from them.

The bench said owing to the nature of allegations and nature of evidence required to be collected by the CBI, it was natural for the agency to take time and conclude the case by filing the chargesheet, paving way for the trial.

On November 20, the Calcutta High Court granted conditional bail to Ghosh, one of the prime accused in an ED case connected to the school recruitment scam.

He was arrested by the ED on January 21, 2023 in the money laundering case and subsequently on February 20, 2023 by the CBI in the related corruption case.

Ghosh, perceived to be a close associate of former TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya who was removed from his position as the president of the state primary education board after the recruitment irregularities came to light and his subsequent arrest by the ED in October 2022, was accused of extracting money from teachers who failed to qualify the Teachers Eligibility Test in return for jobs in schools.

Tapas Mondal, another arrested accused in the case, claimed in a statement before the investigators that Ghosh received close to Rs 20 crore from him as proceeds of crime.

Ghosh is accused of being actively involved in the process of illegal selection of candidates in TET-2014 as well as appointment of candidates as primary teachers, upper primary teachers, assistant teachers for class 9 to 12 and Group-D staff under the West Bengal government.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)