Cash for job: Conditional bail to Partha Chatterjee

“In the event, the trial court is able to complete the directions…framing of charges and recording of some witnesses…at an earlier date, then the appellant will be released on bail immediately thereafter and prior to February 1, 2025,” the Bench said. Directing the trial court to expedite the proceedings in the case, it also said that the TMC leader should not be appointed to any public office upon release, but can remain an MLA.

The court said Chatterjee’s “claim…must be examined through the lens of various pleas he has taken to highlight his mitigating circumstances as well as the adverse impact it may cause in the wake of allegations of playing with the future of thousands of well-merited aspirants and undue benefits accruing to unobserving persons at the cost of these unsuccessful candidates.”

It said, “This latter perspective underscored the broader societal harm caused by such action and the erosion of trust in the integrity of public institutions.”

“In this light, the statement of the appellant’s close associate recorded under Section 50 of the  PMLA assumes enormous significance as it constitutes prima facie evidence linking the appellant to substantial heaps of bribe money recovered from the associate’s residence and company premises,” the court said.

Additionally, the appellant’s prayer for bail must be “juxtaposed against the threat to life expressed by the said associate in her statement.”

In an earlier hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Chatterjee, said he had been in custody for over two and a half years since his arrest in July 2022.

It was during Chatterjee’s tenure as the state education minister during 2014-2021 that the alleged teacher recruitment scam took place in the SSC and the Primary Education Board.

On Friday, the court clarified that “the question of evidential value of the statement recorded under section 50 of the PMLA has not been addressed at this stage, so that no prejudice is caused to the parties.”

“We. however, cannot be oblivious of the certain principles that a suspect cannot be held in custody indefinitely and that undertrial incarceration should not amount to punitive detention,” it said.

“The court would nevertheless ensure that affluent or influential accused do not obstruct the ongoing investigation, tamper with the evidence or influence witnesses, namely actions that undermine the fundamental doctrine of a fair trial,” it added.

Meanwhile, taking note that the chargesheet has been filed by the ED in the money-laundering case involving Chatterjee but charges are yet to be framed, the Bench directed the trial court to decide on framing charges before the commencement of the winter vacations or before December 31. “The trial court, thereafter, has to fix a date within the second and third week of January 2025 for recording the statements of such prosecution witnesses who are most material or most vulnerable. All such witnesses, especially those who have expressed apprehension of danger to their lives, who might be two or three, will be examined on these dates,” it said.

The court said that the witnesses “will be examined without prejudice to the appellant’s right to challenge the decision on framing of charges if the decision is adverse and if he is so aggrieved.”

It underlined that “upon challenge, no stay of trial shall be granted.”