The voice sample of Bhadra, an associate of Trinamool Congress general secretary and second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee, was collected on Wednesday following an in-camera hearing by the High Court’s single bench of Justice Amrita Sinha.
Bhadra (62), who was arrested by the central agency in May last year, remained admitted to hospital on health grounds even as he has been in judicial custody.
Sources said the petition filed by Bhadra’s lawyer was not accepted as of Thursday as the division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar flagged some “technical issue”.
The bench questioned whether the order of Justice Amrita Sinha’s bench had been uploaded on the HC website.
Bhadra’s lawyer claimed before the court that Justice Amrita Sinha’s bench gave an “assumed order” for the test and they don’t have a copy of it. The bench then asked his lawyers to get a copy of the order first.
Bhadra’s voice sample could not be collected for months on “health grounds” as the SSKM Hospital authorities told the ED that he was not fit to take any “stress”.
According to officials, the agency procured an audio recording that they suspect is of Bhadra and could use it as evidence in the scam case.
In a recent medical report submitted by the hospital in the court, doctors from SSKM said an angioplasty was done on Bhadra and a pacemaker was installed on him. The report by the hospital’s cardiology department also said that he is suffering from diabetes and has palpitations which are largely under control through medication.
On Wednesday night, Bhadra was taken by the ED’s investigating officers from the SSKM Hospital to ESI Hospital in Joka for collection of voice sample and brought back in the wee hours of Thursday.
The ED has alleged that the collection of Bhadra’s voice sample faced “unwarranted delay” at the SSKM Hospital.
Last year, the central agencies had arrested the then minister Partha Chatterjee, and party MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha among others in connection with the school jobs scam.
While the CBI is probing the alleged irregularities in the recruitment process, the ED is probing the money laundering aspect.