A court in Kolkata on Friday rejected the bail application of former West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee and remanded him to the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) till September 21. Mr. Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 23 in the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam. Since his arrest, the former West Bengal Minister has been under the custody of the ED, and subsequently in judicial custody where ED officials have questioned him for several days.
Earlier this week, the CBI, which is probing the SSC recruitment scam, approached a court seeking the custody of Mr. Chatterjee. The former Minister, who was in-charge of the State Education Department for the past several years, prayed for bail citing ill health. After his arrest, Mr. Chatterjee was stripped of his Ministerial and party responsibilities and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) dumped him.
An advocate appearing for the CBI before the court said that the agency had sought Mr. Chatterjee’s custody for the purpose of investigation as the magnitude of conspiracy was huge. The CBI had registered First Information Reports (FIR) in the SSC recruitment scam at the directions of Calcutta High Court. During the day, the CBI produced former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Ganguly before a court, which remanded Mr. Ganguly to the agency’s custody till September 21.
