The former state education minister Partha Chatterjee was granted bail on Monday evening by a CBI special court in Calcutta.
Chatterjee, once the number two in the Trinamool Congress, has spent over three years behind bars in the cash-for-jobs scam in the recruitment of school teachers in state-run and state-aided schools across Bengal.
Several other Trinamool leaders, education department and school education board members were arrested in connection with the scam, most of whom have been granted bail.
According to sources, Chatterjee, currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital in south Calcutta is likely to be released once the necessary documents reach the prison authorities.
On 23 July 2022, the Enforcement Directorate branch had raided Chatterjee’s Naktala residence. His close associate Arpita Mukherjee’s Tollygunge flat was also raided and Rs. 21.9 crore seized. From another flat owned by Mukherjee, the ED officials had recovered Rs. 27.9 crore in cash and jewellery worth Rs. 4.3 crore.
Arpita was taken into custody. She was later released on bail.
The Central Bureau of Investigation took Chatterjee in its custody in October 2024.
The Supreme Court had granted bail to Chatterjee in connection with the cash for jobs scam for the posts of assistant teachers and group C and D category staff.
Chatterjee’s bail comes in the midst of a fresh recruitment drive initiated by the School Service Commission on the orders of the Supreme Court.
Chatterjee’s son-in-law Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya who was arrested in the same case later turned approver.
An ailing Chatterjee has been treated for kidney ailment and also underwent a cataract surgery.