A CBI court at Alipore on Monday began framing charges against former education minister Partha Chatterjee for alleged corruption in the recruitment of teachers for Classes IX and X and staff for government-aided schools.

The same day, Calcutta High Court ended the hearing of Chatterjee’s bail prayer in another CBI case for alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary school teachers.

If the court grants him bail in this case, Chatterjee might well walk out of custody.

The Alipore court framed charges against Chatterjee and 25 others. Chatterjee's lawyer pleaded innocence and said that his client was not involved in the alleged scam.

A lawyer quoted the judge as saying that there was an allegation that Chatterjee conspired with others to appoint ineligible candidates by forging marks with the help of officials of the school service commission (SSC).

“The judge also said that there were allegations of destruction of evidence against the accused and that they had influenced the ineligible candidates to pay bribes,” the lawyer added.

Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy have been levelled against Chatterjee.

In the high court, Justice Subhra Ghosh ended the hearing of the bail plea moved by Chatterjee in the case lodged against him by the CBI for alleged illegal recruitment of primary school teachers.

Chatterjee, in jail for more than three years, was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the case initiated against him by the Enforcement Directorate.

But even after getting bail in the ED case, Chatterjee could not come out of jail as he was unable to obtain bail in this particular case being probed by the CBI.

The order was reserved on Monday.

Lawyers in the know said the upcoming order by Justice Ghosh would be significant because this is the last case in which he has yet to obtain bail.

Even if he obtains bail, he will have to face trials in all the cases for which he has been chargesheeted.

Appearing for Chatterjee, advocate Milan Mukherjee focused on the delay on the part of the investigating agencies. "My client has been languishing in jail for more than three years. The CBI has already completed their interrogation. The charges against him are yet to be framed (at the time of submission, the decision to frame charges in the other case had not been announced),” Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee also stressed the need for special treatment of his client. "The petitioner is quite old. He is very unwell. He needs special health care.”

Appearing for the CBI, Rajdeep Majumdar opposed the bail plea and said that Chatterjee had been a senior minister of the state cabinet and had held a key post in the party.

“Since he was minister of the education department during the scam, there is every possibility of tampering with the evidence and influencing the witnesses of the case. So the court should not grant him bail."

Majumdar also said that the trial against Chatterjee and others would start soon.