Cal HC grants bail to Partha Chatterjee

The Calcutta High Court on Friday granted conditional bail to former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the cash-for-jobs case in primary school recruitment.

The bail was granted by the high court's single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh in a case registered by the CBI and ED against Chatterjee. The bench directed Chatterjee to surrender his passport and prevented him from leaving the jurisdiction of the trial court as part of the bail conditions.

Justice Ghosh observed that the former Trinamool Congress secretary general should not be appointed to any public office during the trial. Chatterjee has also been directed to appear before the trial court on every date of the hearing. Chatterjee, the prime accused in the alleged cash-for-jobs scam in West Bengal's state-run schools, had already got bail in all other cases in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case. The latest bail order makes him eligible for release. The former minister has been behind bars for over three years now.