How long can we keep him behind bars, asks SC on Partha Chatterjee's bail plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday hinted at granting relief to former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the money laundering case linked to the alleged cash-for-school job scam.

Expressing concern over the delay in the commencement of the trial, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as to how long can Chatterjee be kept behind bars.

"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?" asked Justice Kant-led Bench.

It 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, highlighted that there were serious corruption charges against the former West Bengal minister as jobs were offered to undeserving candidates after receiving bribes.

He added that 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, contended that the former minister has been under custody for over two years and there was no likelihood of an early completion of 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.

Posting the matter for hearing next week, the apex court asked ASG Raju to apprise it about the period of custody undergone by Chatterjee in the ED as well as the CBI case.

On October 1, the top court had issued notice to the ED and asked the federal anti-money laundering agency to file its reply within two weeks.

In April this year, 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.

Last week, 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. On Monday, it was announced that a single-judge Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty will now look into the matter, including the bail plea of Chatterjee.