Bengal school job case: Calcutta HC rejects anticipatory bail of prime accused Bhadra

Kolkata, Dec 16 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea by West Bengal’s multi-crore cash for school job case prime accused Sujay Krishna Bhadra in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the matter.

Recently, a single-judge bench of the high court had granted conditional bail to Bhadra in the case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case.

However, of late, the CBI has also initiated the process of taking Bhadra, who is currently under treatment at the hospital of Presidency Central Correctional Home in south Kolkata, into its custody in the case it has registered.

Apprehending arrest by the CBI, Bhadra’s counsel moved the high court with the anticipatory bail plea.

However, on Monday, the division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth rejected it.

CBI counsel Dhiraj Trivedi informed the bench that a production warrant has already been issued against Bhadra in the matter and the agency’s officials might take him into custody at any time. When it questioned why the agency is yet to take Bhadra in custody, Trivedi said that the correctional home authorities had intimated to the CBI officials that the current medical conditions of Bhadra are not suitable for being taken into custody.

“But since the production warrant has already been issued and taking Bhadra into custody is a matter of time, the plea for anticipatory bail should not be accepted,” he argued.

However, Bhadra’s counsel, in his counter-argument, claimed that since the production warrant is yet to be effected, there is no legal hurdle in making the anticipatory bail plea. The division bench finally accepted the CBI’s argument and rejected the anticipatory bail plea.

–IANS

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