The minister in charge of Bengal’s correctional services, Chandranath Sinha, surrendered before a special ED court on the Bankshall court premises on Saturday, six days ahead of the September 12 deadline given to him, in a case of alleged irregularities in appointments in state-aided schools.

The court granted him interim bail on a personal bond of ₹10,000 on the condition that he would not go anywhere except his Bolpur Assembly constituency or Calcutta for the time being.

During the hearing, the ED pressed for custodial interrogation of the minister for a week, alleging he would influence some of the witnesses if he were out on bail.

“He will influence the investigation process, hence his custodial interrogation is required,” the ED counsel told the court.

Sinha arrived around 11.45am and walked up a flight of stairs to reach the special ED court of the Bankshall court, taking ED investigators by surprise.

Sinha’s counsel told the court that they received the ED’s application — for a week’s custodial interrogation — on Saturday and needed seven days to draw up their line of argument and submit a reply.

The court said the reply must be submitted by September 12 and scheduled the next hearing date for the ED’s appeal related to Sinha’s custodial interrogation for
September 16.

Sinha is the second Trinamool MLA to be chargesheeted in the case involving alleged irregularities in recruitments in state-aided schools after former education minister Partha Chatterjee.

The chargesheet stated minister Sinha “received” money from several aspirants to jobs in state-aided schools.

The central agency had initiated this probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on an FIR registered by the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch, Calcutta, on the directives of Calcutta High Court. ED sleuths said over ₹40 lakh of unaccounted cash was found in Sinha’s Bolpur residence.

Sinha said he had full faith in the judiciary and did not wish to comment further.