SC Directs Kolkata Court To Decide TMC Leader Kuntal Ghosh’s Bail Plea In School Jobs Scam

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed a special court in Kolkata to promptly decide the bail plea of TMC leader Kuntal Ghosh, who was arrested in January last year for his involvement in a money laundering case tied to the alleged West Bengal school jobs-for-bribes scam.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are investigating the teacher recruitment scandal, which allegedly involved over ₹100 crore being raised from aspiring teachers and non-teaching staff at state-run schools between 2014 and 2021.

Ghosh was taken into custody by the ED on January 21, 2023, after he claimed that the central agencies pressured him to implicate TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.

A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan heard Ghosh’s lawyer, M.S. Khan, and instructed the special court to expedite its decision on the bail plea.

The bench also issued a notice to the probe agency regarding Ghosh’s application and scheduled a hearing for October 17.

Ghosh has raised concerns about the case being assigned to a new judge despite significant progress already made by the previous judge on his bail plea.

Previously, the Supreme Court had stayed a Calcutta High Court order that annulled the appointments of nearly 24,000 individuals in teaching and non-teaching roles within government schools, following a recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2016, which saw over 2.3 million candidates sit for the exam.

Allegations include improper evaluation of OMR sheets for many candidates. Several individuals, including Ghosh, remain in custody in connection with the case.

Read More: Supreme Court, Delhi High Court, States High Court, International