Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of Calcutta High Court on Monday granted conditional bail to Satarupa Bhattacharya, wife of Manik Bhattacharya, a former chairman of the state primary education board, who was arrested in connection with alleged recruitment irregularities in government-aided schools.
Satarupa, who was arrested by the ED in connection with the recruitment case and was in jail custody, is the first accused in the case to be granted bail.
The court on Monday ordered Satarupa to hand her passport to police and furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh. She will also have to appear before the trial court whenever called and assist the investigating officer in the inquiry into the alleged irregularities.
While granting bail to Satarupa, Justice Ghosh said: “The petitioner (Satarupa) had surrendered before the court. It was not that ED or CBI investigators had shown enough interest to take her into custody.”
Moving the bail petition on behalf of Satarupa, advocate Jishnu Saha said: “Long six months have passed since the arrest of my client. Till date, the investigators have failed to show enough reason to arrest her. She is a housewife. She had responded to a court summons and appeared before it. There is no need to keep her in custody.”
Opposing the bail plea, ED counsel Phiroze Edulji opposed the plea and said: “My client had submitted some documents in the trial court, on the basis of which the judge issued the summons and sent her to custody.”
Edulji said the investigators had found bank accounts of Satarupa, where a total of Rs 1.45 crore was deposited.
Justice Ghosh said: “On the very day Satarupa had surrendered in the trial court, she should have been granted bail.”