A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Thursday wanted to know from the CBI how many days they will take to finish their probe against Kuntal Ghosh, the suspended Trinamool youth leader who is among the accused in the alleged corruption in school recruitments, and for how long the court would be able to deny him bail.
Justice Joymalya Bagchi, the senior judge of the division bench, said this while hearing Kuntal’s bail plea.
The judge asked the CBI to file a report by April 23 stating details about Kuntal such as how many days he has been in jail and what evidence the CBI has gathered to prove the charges against him.
The counsel appearing for the CBI said Kuntal and another accused, Niladri Ghosh, also in judicial custody, had opened a website through which they operated a fraudulent system of appointing teachers in primary schools illegally.
“Niladri Ghosh was collecting the money. CBI officers have recovered a diary that belongs to Kuntal Ghosh. The accounts related to the collection of money have been written in the said diary,” CBI lawyer Dhiraj Trivedi said.
He said the duo had collected “crores of rupees”.
The CBI counsel said Kuntal had been in jail for a year and three months. At this, Justice Bagchi said: “Even if his guilt (as claimed by the central agency) is proved, he may be sent to jail for a maximum term of ten years. But you are saying that he has already spent more than a year in jail. Now, how long can the court allow him to stay inside the jail by not granting his bail prayer?”
The CBI counsel prayed for a few days to complete the probe. Justice Bagchi asked the CBI to inform him on April 23 how many candidates had given money to Kuntal and Niladri for illegally obtaining teaching jobs.
