The Calcutta high court on Tuesday rejected the bail petition of former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and four other ex-public servants in a Central Bureau of Investigation case over an alleged school jobs recruitment scam.
Besides Chatterjee, Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty also rejected the bail prayer of former West Bengal School Service Commission chairman Subires Bhattacharya, former state secondary education board president Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former chairman of SSC's advisory committee S P Saha, and former SSC secretary Ashok Saha.
Earlier, a division bench comprising justices Arijit Banerjee and Apurba Sinha Ray differed in their separate judgments on the bail prayer of the five accused.
While Justice Banerjee allowed the bail application of all the accused, Justice Sinha Ray rejected it.
The matter was thereafter assigned to the single bench of Justice Chakraborty by the HC chief justice for adjudication.
Justice Chakraborty, in his judgment, expressed agreement with Justice Sinha Ray's order, rejecting the bail application of all five accused.
He emphasised that the allegations against the petitioners are serious, noting that if proven, the offences could damage the credibility of the state's education system. -- PTI