Bengal Ex-Minister's Judicial Custody Extended In Jobs Scam Case

A Special CBI Court on Monday extended judicial custody of West Bengal former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee along with ex-officials for 14 days in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) Scam.

The former state education minister was produced in the CBI court, Alipore in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission Scam.

The court rejected the application for a virtual appearance of Partha Chatterjee and ordered his physical presence today.

On Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against 12 people including the former chairman of West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) Subiresh Bhattachary in connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers.

According to CBI officials, the agency, in its charge sheet also named a former assistant secretary of the WBCSSC, an ex-advisor, two former programme officers of the commission, and six others in the charge-sheet submitted before Alipore special judge.

The accused in the charge sheet were identified as Santi Prasad Sinha, Ashok Kr Saha, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Parna Bose, Samarjit Acharya, Prasanna Kumar Roy, Pradip Singh, Jnui Das, Md Azad Ali Mirza, Imam Momin, and Rohit Kumar Jha.

However, Sanjay Das Gupta, Counsel for Santi Prasad Sinha in the case argued for bail of the accused mentioned in the CBI's charge sheet before the Court.

"The accused produced in the Court today following the Court's order for physical appearance," Sanjay Das told ANI.

Asked about CBI's plea seeking custody of the accused, Sanjay Das said, "As per CBI, there is a larger conspiracy and the investigation will be hampered if the accused are released."

"The CBI is doing an investigation for 4-5 months and has submitted the charge sheet in the WBSSC scam without concluding the investigation," Das said. Adding that the CBI in the Court underlined that the interrogation of the accused mentioned in the charge sheet has been covered and further interrogation is pending of other accused persons who are not present here.

"Our argument is that if the investigation of the accused mentioned in the charge sheet is covered, then why they should be under the agency's custody?" Das told ANI.

"The CBI is indicating a larger conspiracy, we argued that if it was a larger conspiracy, then what prompted you to submit the charge sheet so hurriedly? You should have waited," Das said further.

Meanwhile, Indicting the CBI for cleverly using lacunae of the law, and submitting the charge sheet so early without concluding the investigation, Sanjay Das says that they have submitted the chargesheet so early without concluding the inquiry so that the accused remains behind bars, without getting bail.

"The CBI told the Court that time of six months around will be needed to investigate 350 others in the case. But as the premier agency took more than 4 months and examined just 10 accused, we don't think that the CBI will finish its deadline on time." Sanjay Das told ANI.

Notably, after hearing both petitioners, the Special Court ordered to extend the judicial custody of Partha Chatterjee along with ex-officials for 14 days in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) Scam.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)