New Delhi, Dec 2 The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned hearing on the bail plea of former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the money laundering case linked to the alleged cash-for-school job scam.
A bench, headed by Justice Surya Kant, decided to defer the hearing to review the period of custody undergone by Chatterjee in the ED as well as the CBI case.
As per the computerised case status reflected on the apex court website, the matter is tentatively listed for hearing on December 4.
In the previous hearing, the Bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, hinted at granting relief to Chatterjee and expressed concern over the delay in the commencement of the trial.
Questioning the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as to how long can Chatterjee be kept behind bars, the Justice Kant-led Bench had asked, “How long can we keep him behind bars? This is a case where more than 2 years have passed. If ultimately he (Chatterjee) is not convicted, what will happen?"
It had also flagged the poor conviction rate in the cases lodged by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In response, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the ED, had highlighted that there were serious corruption charges against the former West Bengal minister as jobs were offered to undeserving candidates after receiving bribes.
ASG Raju added that Partha Chatterjee was under the CBI custody in the predicate offence and if released on bail, he will influence the witnesses to retract their statements.
On the other hand, senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, appearing on Chatterjee’s behalf, had contended that the former minister had been under custody for over two years and there was no likelihood of early completion of the trial.
Rohtagi, instructed by advocate Misha Rastogi, also raised suspicion on the timing of arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) saying that Chatterjee was arrested after two years of registration of the FIR when his bail petition in the ED case was pending adjudication before the top court.
Thereafter, the apex court had asked ASG Raju to apprise it about the period of custody undergone by Chatterjee in the ED as well as the CBI case.
The top court, on October 1, had issued notice to the ED and asked the federal anti-money laundering agency to file its reply within two weeks.
Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had rejected Chatterjee’s bail plea. After being denied bail in the lower court multiple times, Chatterjee approached the high court, contending that he had no connection with the huge amount of cash recovered from the residence of his close aide Arpita Mukherjee, and should be granted bail. The ED had recovered huge quantities of cash and gold from the twin residences of Mukherjee in July 2022, which the latter had claimed were kept there by Chatterjee.
In the course of the investigation, the ED also confiscated some property in the form of land plots or residential houses indirectly or jointly held by the Trinamool Congress leader and his close associates and relatives.
Chatterjee was arrested from his residence by the ED in July 2022. Since then, after the initial days of central agency custody, his address had been a cell at Presidency Central Correctional Home in south Kolkata.
Two weeks ago, the Calcutta High Court delivered a split verdict on Chatterjee’s bail plea in the corruption case registered against him by the CBI in the same alleged multi-crore cash-for-school job scam. While Justice Arijit Bandopadhyay pronounced in favour of bail for Chatterjee and eight others accused in the case, Justice Apurba Sinha Roy rejected the bail for Chatterjee and four others. However, the bail pleas of four persons were allowed both by Justice Bandopadhyay and Justice Sinha Roy.
The division bench ordered the matter to be placed before Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam. Last week, it was announced that a single-judge Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty will look into the matter, including the bail plea of Chatterjee.
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