In a significant development on Friday, the Supreme Court granted regular bail to Kuntal Ghosh, a former youth leader of the Trinamool Congress, entangled in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case regarding the West Bengal primary school recruitment scam. Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan presided over the case, pointing out the prolonged delay in the trial’s progress as a key factor for their decision.
Ghosh, who has spent the last 19 months in custody, was represented by Advocate MS Khan, who presented two trial court orders to substantiate the claim that the trial’s conclusion remains indefinitely delayed. The delay is primarily due to the CBI’s failure so far to file the final charge sheet in the case.
In their ruling, the bench imposed conditions on Ghosh’s bail, stipulating that he must not leave the state of West Bengal without prior approval from the court or the investigative agency. Additionally, Ghosh is barred from holding any public office and from making public statements concerning the merits of the ongoing investigation.
This court decision comes shortly after the Calcutta High Court’s November 20 ruling, which granted Ghosh conditional bail in a related Enforcement Directorate (ED) case concerning the same school recruitment scam. Ghosh was initially arrested by the ED on January 21, 2023, in the money laundering case, followed by his CBI arrest on February 20, 2023, for corruption charges linked to the scam.
