The Supreme Court, today, Tuesday, October 1, directed a special Kolkata court to promptly rule on the bail plea of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Kuntal Ghosh, who was arrested in January of last year in connection with a money laundering case related to the alleged West Bengal school jobs-for-bribes scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are investigating the teacher recruitment scam, in which, more than Rs 100 crore was allegedly collected by certain TMC leaders from aspiring teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run schools between 2014 and 2021.
Ghosh was taken into custody by the ED on January 21 of last year.
The case gained attention after Ghosh claimed that central investigation agencies pressured him to implicate TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan heard the arguments of Ghosh's counsel, MS Khan, and instructed the special court to address the bail plea without delay.
The bench also issued a notice to the investigating agency regarding Ghosh's petition, scheduling the next hearing for October 17.
Ghosh approached the Supreme Court, arguing that a new judge would now preside over his bail plea, even though the previous judge had already substantially heard the case.
Previously, the Supreme Court had stayed a Calcutta High Court ruling that nullified the appointment of nearly 24,000 individuals in teaching and non-teaching roles in state government schools.
The recruitment process, overseen by the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2016, saw over 23 lakh candidates take the exam.
It was alleged that many candidates were appointed based on incorrect evaluations of OMR sheets.
Several individuals, including Ghosh, remain in custody concerning the case.
