Calcutta High Court Denies Bail To Former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, Four Others In Recruitment Scam Case

The Calcutta High Court has denied bail to former education minister Partha Chatterjee and four others, namely Subiresh Bhattacharjee, Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, Ashok Saha and Shanti Prasad Sinha in the infamous cash-for-jobs recruitment scam.

Earlier a division bench had delivered a split verdict on the bail applications of the petitioners.

On this occasion Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty denied the bail pleas and held:

"Parity cannot be the sole ground for granting bail even at the stage when the bail application of a co-accused is allowed. The Court has to satisfy itself that, on consideration of more materials placed, further developments in the investigations and other different considerations, there are sufficient grounds for releasing the applicant on bail. In deciding the aspect of parity, the role attached to the accused persons, their position in relation to the incident and to the victims is of utmost importance. Court cannot proceed on the basis of parity on a simplistic assessment, which again cannot pass muster under the law."

"Offences involving economic crime and corruption fall in a different category. Their gravity cannot be measured only from the perspective of sentence prescribed in law. A crime of this nature would definitely fall in the category of offences which travel far ahead of personal or private wrong. The Court cannot be a silent or a mute spectator and yield to the ingenuous dexterity of the accused persons to adroit moves," he added.

The Court thus sided with the separate opinion delivered by Justice Apurba Sinha Ray denying bail to the applicants. On that occasion, Justice Ray had held:

"The record reveals that the present applicants were the mastermind and they orchestrated the entire scam. They cannot be equated with the accused like Prasanna Kumar Roy, Jiban Krishna Saha who actually acted as touts or collecting agents. The five applicants namely Dr. Subires Bhattacharya @ Subiresh Bhattacharjee, Sri. Ashok Kumar Saha, Dr. Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Sri. Santi Prasad Sinha, Dr. Partha Chatterjee as stated above are still influential, and there are chances of manipulating, influencing, intimidating witnesses, if they are enlarged on bail. In view of the above, I am not inclined to allow the prayers for bail of the said applicants at this stage. Accordingly, the relevant bail applications are rejected."

Accordingly, the applications were dismissed.

Case: Dr. Subires Bhattacharya @ Subiresh Bhattacharjee Vs. The Central Bureau of Investigation

Case No: CRM (DB) 172 of 2024

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