Kolkata, Nov 20 (IANS): The decision on the bail plea of Partha Chatterjee, the former West Bengal Education Minister and ex-Trinamool Congress secretary general, in the cash-for-school-job case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) remained pending on Wednesday, as the two-judge division bench of the Calcutta High Court reached a split verdict.
One judge of the division bench, Justice Arijit Bandopadhyay, pronounced in favour of bail for Chatterjee and eight others accused in the case. The second judge, Justice Apurba Sinha Roy, however, rejected the bail for Chatterjee and four others.
The matter has been sent back to the division bench of Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, who will refer the matter to a higher three-judge bench.
However, the four persons whose bail petitions have been granted both by Justice Bandopadhyay and Justice Sinha Roy will now be released on bail.
As it is, Chatterjee did not have the chance to be released immediately from behind bars even if the division bench had cleared his bail plea, since his separate bail petition in the same case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is pending before the Supreme Court.
Partha Chatterjee approached the apex court seeking bail in the case registered by ED after a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court earlier this year rejected his bail petition in the same case.
Two parallel cases are going on against the former state education minister, one registered by the CBI and the other by the ED. He was arrested in July 2022 by the officials of ED after huge cash and gold were recovered from the twin residences of his close aide Arpita Mukherjee.
Since then a solitary cell at Presidency Central Correctional Home became his abode and his bail petitions one after another were rejected by different courts. Chatterjee has been in judicial custody since then.
Soon after Chatterjee's arrest, Trinamool Congress announced his removal from all administrative and organisational chairs. Even the party abolished the post of secretary general, which was specially created to give Chatterjee a party rank somewhat equivalent to national general secretary.