Kolkata, February 27 – A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court granted conditional bail to Santi Prasad Sinha, a former advisor to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), in connection with his alleged involvement in the multi-crore "cash-for-jobs" scandal in the state.
Sinha was granted bail in the case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). He had previously secured bail in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same matter.
However, he was still awaiting a decision on his bail application in the ED case. With the High Court granting him bail in the ED-registered case on Friday, there are no further legal obstacles to his release.
Sinha has been in custody for almost four years since his arrest by the CBI on August 10, 2022. His arrest followed shortly after the ED arrested Partha Chatterjee, a former West Bengal Education Minister and Secretary General of the Trinamool Congress, in July 2022, in connection with the same case.
While granting bail, the single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta imposed several conditions.
One of the conditions stipulates that Sinha cannot leave the jurisdiction of the police station under which his residence falls without prior permission.
He has also been directed to surrender his passport to the investigating agency. In addition, he must provide two contact numbers to the court and the investigating officers, and ensure that he remains reachable at those numbers.
The court further directed Sinha not to contact any of the witnesses in the case or attempt to influence them in any way.
Justice Sengupta observed that the bail would be immediately revoked if he attempted to tamper with evidence in the case.
The single-judge bench also directed the trial court to expedite the trial process in the matter.