SC grants bail to TMC ex-leader in Bengal school recruitment scam

The Supreme Court on Friday granted regular bail to former Trinamool Congress youth leader Kuntal Ghosh in a corruption case linked to the West Bengal primary school recruitment scam.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said it was not likely that the trial would be completed in the foreseeable near future in the case wherein Ghosh had been in custody for the past 19 months.

Ghosh will be walking out of jail after over a year as he was granted bail in the money laundering case linked to the scam on November 20.

"It is too early to foresee the conclusion of the trial. In the given circumstances, the detention of the accused in custody for the indefinite period will not be in conformity with the settled position in law," the bench said.

Ghosh, directed by the top court, to not leave West Bengal without the prior permission of the court or the investigation agency.

It also directed Ghosh not to hold any public post or make statements in the media in relation to the merit of the investigation.

"We can't stop him from holding any post in the political party," the bench observed and directed him not to influence or tamper with the evidence in the case.

During the hearing, advocate MS Khan, representing Ghosh, referred to two orders of the trial court to buttress his argument that the trial won't be over in the near future as the CBI was yet to file the final chargesheet.

Khan said the trial court in its order of January 16 and the one passed in July indicated the investigation was ongoing and it was not possible to commence the trial in the near future.

"I have been in custody for the past 19 months and charges have not been framed yet against me. Moreover, an application has been moved for transferring the case to another court," Khan said.

The bench asked the CBI counsel about the time it needed to complete the investigation and was informed that the probe agency was planning to file a supplementary chargesheet in December as it had to examine the witnesses defrauded by the accused.

The counsel said the allegations against him were serious as he created a parallel website similar to the West Bengal Primary Education Board, where fake results of undeserving candidates seeking jobs were posted and crores of rupees were collected from them.

The bench said owing to the nature of the allegations and the nature of evidence required to be collected by the CBI, it was natural for the agency to take time and conclude the case by filing the chargesheet, paving way for the trial.

On November 20, the Calcutta High Court granted conditional bail to Ghosh, one of the prime accused in an ED case connected to the school recruitment scam.

He was arrested by the ED on January 21, 2023, in the money laundering case and subsequently on February 20, 2023 by the CBI in the related corruption case.

Ghosh, perceived to be a close associate of former TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya who was removed from his position as the president of the state primary education board after the recruitment irregularities came to light and his subsequent arrest by the ED in October 2022, was accused of extracting money from teachers who failed to qualify the Teachers Eligibility Test in return for jobs in schools.

Tapas Mondal, another arrested accused in the case, claimed in a statement before the investigators that Ghosh received close to Rs 20 crore from him as proceeds of crime.

Ghosh is accused of being actively involved in the process of illegal selection of candidates in TET-2014 as well as the appointment of candidates as primary teachers, upper primary teachers, assistant teachers for classes 9 to 12 and Group-D staff under the West Bengal government.