12 Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Monday heard the bail application of former education minister Partha Chatterjee and other accused in the job recruitment case. Chatterjee's counsel Milon Mukherjee argued that the delay in granting of sanction by the state to prosecute the accused, who were public servants, had no bearing on the bail plea.
The matter had been reassigned to Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty after a split verdict was delivered by the division bench of justices Arijit Banerjee and Apurba Sinha Roy.
Mukherjee on Tuesday made submissions before the single judge highlighting various sections of the dissenting judgment by Justice Sinha Roy. Referring to the judgment which stated, "In ability to proceed with the trial of Partha Chatterjee cannot be attributed to the CBI since the state govt is dragging its feet over the issue of sanction in respect of other accused for years together", his counsel asked: "How am I (Partha) to be blamed for the same? I (Partha) have been in custody for more than two and a half years now. He was arrested on Sept 16, 2022."
The dissenting judgment also mentioned that the sanction was kept pending to enable Chatterjee and others to make a plea of delay in progress of trial. Mukherjee contended that if that was the case, then CBI would have to prove the ‘nexus'. "I think Arvind Kejriwal was more influential than Partha Chatterjee, still bail was granted to him," he remarked in passing.