Manik Bhattacharya, a former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education who is now in custody in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitments in schools, was produced at Calcutta High Court on Wednesday following a 12.45pm order from Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay that he be brought in by 3pm.
Bhattacharya was produced in Justice Gangopadhyay’s court at 3pm.
During the course of the hearing, the judge said that since he knew Bhattacharya for a long time, he would like to speak to him in private. The two did so for about 10 minutes.
Before that, Justice Gangopadhyay asked him which agency was responsible for publishing the results of the 2014 Teachers’ Eligibility Test.
Bhattacharya in response asked for time from the court since the documents were not with him.
The judge then asked Bhattacharya with whose permission the TET results were published and the name of the company responsible for the publication of the results.
Bhattacharya told the judge it would not be possible for him to answer all the questions at such short notice.
Bhattacharya was arrested in October 2022 in connection with alleged corruption in recruitments in government-aided primary schools.
Bhattacharya, a former principal of Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College in south Kolkata, is a Trinamul Congress MLA from Nadia. He became president of the state primary education board in 2011.
On Wednesday, he told the judge that he could not answer all the questions because he did not take all the decisions alone when he was in the West Bengal Board of Primary Education.
At one point, Bhattacharya told the judge that since he was in judicial custody, it was not possible for him to produce all information related to the case.
The MLA said truth should prevail and that he would be in court even on a 15-minute notice if he had to.
The judge told Bhattacharya that he had a long association with him and asked him to go to the office of the deputy sheriff.
From the office of the deputy sheriff, Bhattacharya was taken back to jail.