The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted bail to suspended Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh in a money laundering case in connection with an alleged scam linked to the teachers’ recruitment process in West Bengal.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Ghosh, then a Trinamool Congress youth leader, in January 2023 during its investigation into the money trail in the recruitment scam related to the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014.
Ghosh has been granted conditional bail in the case lodged by the ED, on a personal bond of Rs10 lakh. He is required to surrender his passport and regularly appear for hearings in the lower court.
The Trinamool leader will also not be allowed to change his mobile number, which must be submitted to the court. Additionally, Ghosh has been directed not to influence any witnesses in the case.
However, Ghosh will remain in jail as he has not been granted bail in a separate case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Despite securing bail in the ED case, he will not be released from custody at this time.
During the bail hearing, Ghosh’s lawyers argued that he had been in custody for one year and nine months and that there was no certainty about when the trial in the case would commence.
The central agency opposed the bail plea, alleging that Ghosh was one of the masterminds of the alleged job recruitment scam.