Calcutta High Court Grants Bail To Trinamool Congress Leader Manik Bhattacharya In Recruitment Scam Case

The Calcutta High Court has granted bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and former MLA Manik Bhattacharya, accused in the cash-for-jobs recruitment scam case. Notably, two earlier pleas for bail by Bhattacharya had been dismissed by the court.

A single bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh relied on the Supreme Court's order in Manish Sisodia's case and held:

As observed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court time and again, prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become punishment without trial and in such a case Article 21 applies irrespective of the seriousness of the crime. With regard to the apprehension of the petitioner influencing the witnesses, stringent conditions can be imposed upon him to address the concern. The attendance of the petitioner may also be secured by imposing stringent conditions. The petitioner has no criminal antecedent to his credit and no other criminal case except the present one is pending against him.  

While Justice Ghosh acknowledged that the ED had produced some prima facie proof against Bhattacharya to prove his culpability, it was noted that the delay in the trial could not be attributed to the accused and that due to the large volumes of documents yet to be examined, the trial would not be concluded any time soon.

Hence, bail was granted to the accused-petitioner.

Background

Bhattacharya was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its investigation into the multi-crore rupees cash-for-jobs recruitment scam whereby primary and secondary school teachers were being hired in government jobs in exchange for healthy bribes.

The alleged scam also involved manipulating the results of the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) held in the years 2014 and 15.

The investigation into the alleged scam is being carried out by the ED and CBI under the monitoring of the High Court and has also implicated several prominent TMC leaders such as former education minister Partha Chatterjee.

The ED was also investigating alleged links between TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee's company 'Leaps and Bounds' and the proceeds of the illegal scam being carried out through state departments.

Case: Manik Bhattacharya v State of West Bengal

Case No: CRM (SB) 72/2024

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Cal) 212

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