A new Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday heard the bail plea by former education minister and Trinamul Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case and reserved its judgement.
Pointing to the low conviction rate in the money laundering cases, a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the trial is yet to commence and, with 183 witnesses to be examined, will take a long time.
The authorities of Presidency Central Correctional Home in South Kolkata have rejected the plea of former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee for a full-time assistant in his cell.
The first team started the raid and search operations at the residence of Sukanta Acharya, the executive assistant of the former education minister Partha Chatterjee at New Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas.
On Thursday, Chatterjee's counsel Selim Rahman made a forceful argument in the court while moving the bail plea on behalf of his client. Even drawing the reference of Bollywood blockbuster movie "Jolly LLB", Rahman also claimed that going for a sit-in demonstration will be the only course left for him and his client.
Earlier Malviya had asked why West Bengal minister of state for education Paresh Adhikari has not been sacked after an FIR was filed against him.
Partha Chatterjee has claimed that many other top leaders dropped by at properties purchased in Arpita Mukherjee's name.
Chatterjee, general secretary of TMC was the minister in charge for Department of Industry, Commerce and Enterprises, Department of Information Technology and Electronics, Department of Parliamentary Affairs and Department of Public Enterprises and Industrial Reconstruction.
Dhar has informed the central agency that he is a driver by profession and in 2011 Arpita Mukherjee appointed her as her personal driver at a monthly remuneration of Rs 10,000 which was later increased to Rs 18,000 a month.
It is learnt that whenever Chatterjee visited Mukherjee's residences, the Minister had closed-door meetings with the unknown person which she was not allowed to participate in.
