Supreme Court Asks Special Court To Decide Bail Plea Of TMC's Kuntal Ghosh In 10 Days

The Supreme Court today directed a West Bengal Special Court to hear and decide in 10 days Trinamool Congress youth leader Kuntal Ghosh's bail plea in a money laundering case arising out of the alleged cash-for-jobs scam in West Bengal.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order in a writ petition filed by Ghosh, assailing fresh hearing of his bail plea by a new judge, after significant hearing had already taken place before the preceding judge.

Orally observing that the petitioner has a "genuine grievance", Justice Kant dictated the order thus: 

"Issue notice, returnable on...meanwhile, the special court is directed to take up the bail matter of the petitioner, if need be on day-to-day basis, and decide the same within 10 days and send a compliance report."

Ghosh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in January, 2023. As per allegations, he collected Rs.19 crores from 325 candidates promising them jobs as teachers in West Bengal government-run schools.

Notably, several high-ranking officials from the West Bengal government have been implicated in the case since the probe began. These include former education minister Partha Chatterjee, former MLA Manik Bhattacharya and many others who have been in custody for more than a year.

Today, the bail plea of Partha Chatterjee was also listed before the Court, on which the bench of Justices Kant and Bhuyan issued notice.

Case Title: KUNTAL GHOSH Versus ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE (KOLKATA ZONE), W.P.(Crl.) No. 397/2024

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