Former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee was granted bail on Wednesday by a special CBI court in Alipore in connection with the alleged corruption in the recruitment of SSC teachers for classes IX–X and XI–XII. However, despite securing bail, Chatterjee will not walk free. He remains behind bars as he is also an accused in the CBI’s primary teachers’ recruitment case, where his bail plea is still pending.
Chatterjee, along with other accused, moved a bail plea in the Central Bureau of Investigation court on Wednesday. The federal agency opposed the petition, arguing that each case was distinct, with different evidence and implications. The CBI said that the recruitment scam had caused serious damage to society and therefore bail should not be granted.
Despite these arguments, the court allowed Chatterjee bail on a personal bond of ₹7,000. Earlier, he had also received bail in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) primary recruitment case.
The controversy dates back to 2016. On July 22, 2022, the ED raided Chatterjee’s Naktala residence in south Kolkata, conducted overnight search operations and arrested him the following day. In subsequent raids on flats linked to his close aide Arpita Mukherjee in Tollygunge and Belgharia, investigators recovered ₹49.80 crore in cash, jewellery worth ₹5.80 crore, foreign currency and property documents.
The ED claimed that assets worth at least ₹60 crore were seized, including gold, flats and houses. Arpita was also arrested for her role in illegal financial dealings linked to recruitment scam.
Over the following months, Chatterjee was named in several recruitment-related corruption cases, including Group C, Group D and primary recruitment scams. The CBI arrested him in October 2024 in connection with the primary recruitment case.
Recently, the CBI filed its final chargesheet in the SSC IX–X and XI–XII recruitment scam cases before the Alipore court. Last Friday, the agency also submitted its final chargesheet in the Group C case. So far, four chargesheets have been filed in the SSC recruitment scam.
The first chargesheet, filed just 51 days after the probe began in 2022, named Chatterjee along with several key officials, including former SSC advisor Shantiprasad Sinha, former SSC chairman Soumitra Sarkar, ad hoc committee chairman Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay and multiple illegally appointed candidates.
While the latest chargesheet does not add new names, CBI sources say fresh evidence and documents have been submitted to strengthen the case.
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