Calcutta, Oct. 31: Madan Mitra will not leave SSKM immediately, sources close to the minister said, fuelling speculation whether the idea was to pre-empt allegations that he had feigned illness to escape the rigours of jail and seek comfort in hospital.

" Swasti pelam. Satyer joy holo. Aro tin-char din hospital-ey thaktey chai. Ekebarey shustho hoye bari phirbo (I'm relieved. The truth has triumphed. I want to stay in the hospital for another three to four days. I shall return home after becoming fully fit)," a family member quoted Mitra as saying.

Of the 323 days he had been in judicial custody, Mitra spent 280 in SSKM. His address has been a cabin in the Woodburn Ward, arguably the best maintained section of the hospital. The ward is usually reserved for VIPs.

The sources said that had Mitra left the hospital immediately after being granted bail today, it would have allowed his critics and the CBI to allege that he had been fit all along.

"Dada will not leave the hospital today. A medical board will assess his condition and decide on his release," an aide said.

According to the sources, Mitra spent more than an hour with his family after being granted bail.

The minister has been in cabin No. 20 of the Woodburn Ward since February 11. He was arrested on December 12 last year. Between December and February 10, Mitra had spent 18 days in SSKM and the rest of the time in Alipore jail.

A seven-member medical team headed by Mrinal Kanti Das, SSKM's head of medicine, has been attending to Mitra, who happens to be the MLA from Kamarhati in North 24-Parganas.

On February 11, he was admitted to SSKM with complaints of breathlessness, cardiac problems and sleep apnoea, a disorder characterised by pauses in breathing or spells of shallow or infrequent breathing during sleep.

"He will have to undergo a thorough check-up before we can let him go home," a hospital source said.

A crowd of Mitra supporters thronged SSKM after he was granted bail. Some came with sweets, some with flowers, while some carried the Trinamul flag. Most of them came on two-wheelers.

Several of them reached Mitra's room on the second floor and spoke to him. As the numbers swelled, police and the minister's aides cleared the corridor outside his cabin and closed the gate of the building that houses the Woodburn Ward.

The sources said Mitra told his aides to ask everyone to leave. He then spent some time with his wife, two sons, grandson and one of his daughters-in-law.

Mitra learnt about his bail from his lawyers and elder son, the source said.

"His wife, sons, grandson and daughter-in-law were in the cabin. He instructed us to ensure that his supporters did not go overboard and begin celebrations," the source said.

Mitra, the sources said, had prasad from the Kali temple in Dakshineswar, brought by one of his loyalists.

Many among the crowd waited for two to three hours on the hospital premises and left after it became clear that Mitra would not leave immediately.

Shyamal Sarkar, a Mitra loyalist from Jadavpur, said: "I got my job because of him. I am so happy today that I have come to see him."

He could not meet the minister, though.