Kolkata, April 8 The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to multi-crore Saradha Ponzi scam accused Sudipta Sen in two of the over 300 criminal cases against him, paving the way for his release from jail after 13 years.
A division bench of the high court granted bail to Sen in two cases related to the Barasat police station in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
Sen has already been granted bail in all the other cases registered against him, including four cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The court directed that Sen be released upon furnishing a bond of Rs 5,000 with two sureties of equal amount, one of whom must be a local resident.
The Saradha group, led by Sen, is alleged to have defrauded lakhs of people through a series of Ponzi schemes. He was arrested in April 2013 in Jammu and Kashmir after financial misappropriations amounting to hundreds of crores of Rupees were uncovered.
The division bench, comprising justices Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Uday Kumar, directed that, in view of the magnitude of the financial scam and the need to protect public interest, Sen must surrender his passport to the trial court if he is not already in the custody of any other agency.
The division bench also prohibited Sen from leaving the territorial limits of West Bengal without prior written permission from the high court. It also directed the accused to provide his residential address to the officer in charge of the Barasat police station and not to change his place of residence without prior intimation to both the police and the trial court.
"The petitioner is strictly restrained from promoting, managing, or acting as an agent or consultant for any financial entity," the court directed.
Sen was also directed not to contact, influence, or intimidate any person acquainted with the facts of the cases, particularly the complainants and prosecution witnesses. He was also directed to attend every court hearing, either virtually or in person.
Along with Sen, his close associate Debjani Mukherjee was also arrested from Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir 13 years ago. She has already been granted bail in the cases registered against her.