The arrested director of Leaps and Bounds, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, whose voice sample was collected late on Wednesday in connection with the ongoing probe into alleged irregularities in recruitment in government-aided schools, moved a Calcutta High Court division bench on Thursday challenging an order of a single bench of the high court to use his voice sample as evidence in the case.
Bhadra, referred to as Kalighater Kaku by some of the other accused in the case, simultaneously moved the single bench of Justice Amrita Sinha to make him a party to the case in which the judge had passed the order after an in-camera hearing on Wednesday directing the Enforcement Directorate to execute an earlier court order and collect Bhadra’s voice samples on Wednesday night.
An ED team took Bhadra from SSKM Hospital ESI Hospital, Joka, on Wednesday night for the voice test. He came back to SSKM early on Thursday.
A few hours later, Bhadra’s counsel approached the division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumar challenging Justice Sinha’s order to extract his voice sample as evidence.
Justice Sen, before hearing the matter on Thursday, asked for a copy of the order passed by Justice Sinha. However, as Wednesday’s hearing was carried out “in-camera”, the order sheet had yet to be uploaded on the official website at the time of the hearing. The matter was thus not heard.
Justice Sinha’s order was uploaded to the site on Thursday evening.
A senior lawyer of Calcutta High Court not attached to the case said: “Now that the order has been issued, Sujay Krishna Bhadra is free to move the division bench challenging the order.”
Justice Sinha’s order from Wednesday’s hearing mentioned: “The ED officer may take the help of CRPF personnel at the time of transporting the accused from SSKM hospital to ESIC hospital, Joka. The MSVP of SSKM hospital or any other authority who is in charge of the accused in SSKM hospital is directed to hand over the accused to the investigating officer of the ED for compliance of the order passed herein.”
The order further mentioned: “Standing in the way of complying with the court’s order will amount to contempt and the contemnor will be liable to face proceedings for the same.”
Not providing “the voice sample is delaying the investigation”, the order said.
The ED officers on Thursday submitted a compliance report before Justice Sinha who fixed the next date of hearing on January 10.
As Bhadra’s counsel submitted before Justice Sinha to make their client a party
to the case, he was asked to file a petition in court, which would also be heard on January 10.