A day after setting a two-month deadline for the Central Bureau of Investigation to finish its probe in Bengal school recruitment scam, the Supreme Court granted bail to Prasanna Roy who was arrested by the same agency for allegedly acting as a “middleman” between backdoor job aspirants and the prime accused, former education minister Partha Chatterjee, who continues to remain behind bars.
Roy, who was represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and advocate Anirban Guhatharta, was allowed bail by the top court on grounds that despite the agency filing charge sheets in two cases he was accused of, cognizance of the charges had not been taken by the trial court leaving little chance of commencement of trial in the near future. The bail order was passed by the Bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Sanjay Kumar.
“Taking note of the offences alleged against the petitioner and the fact that he has already undergone imprisonment of more than one year and also taking into account the fact that cognizance is yet to be taken on the charge sheet(s) filed, we are of the considered view that the petitioner can be released on bail,” the Supreme Court order read.
Roy, said to be a relative of Partha Chatterjee, was arrested by the CBI on August 26, 2022 on grounds that he acted as an intermediary between agents of the school jobs scam and the minister, collecting money from scouts of aspiring candidates and channeling it to places on Chatterjee’s instructions. While a case was registered against Roy in Group D recruitment irregularities in the state School Service Commission scam, he was subsequently also found to be a suspect in the recruitment irregularities of teachers in classes IX and X.
While the charge sheet against Roy in the former case was filed by the CBI on October 21, 2022, that of the latter was filed on May 17 this year.
“Since cognizance for both charge sheets against my client weren’t taken, copies of the charge sheets weren’t shared with us. Our submission before the court today was that we don’t even know what we are accused of and for which our client remains languishing in jail for over a year now,” said Guhatakurta.
“We also argued that since charge sheets in both cases have already been filed against our client, there is no further scope of investigation against him and, by extension, no need to detain him in custody,” the defense counsel added.
The court, however, directed that Roy would have to be produced before the trial court to comply with the order and would be released on bail “subject to strict terms and conditions imposed by the trial court”.
On Thursday, though, the Apex court had returned all cases related to the SSC scam in Bengal back to the Calcutta High Court directing it to settle all cash for jobs cases within six months by constituting a special Division Bench following the agency wrapping up investigations in the next two months. The order came as a glimmer of hope for the aspiring agitating teachers of the state unfairly left out of the recruitment lists who are now looking forward to a deadline for an end to their agonies.