Kolkata, March 20 (IANS) A special court here has approved the plea by Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya, the son-in-law of the former West Bengal education minister and ex-Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee, for exemption from the list of “accused” in the multi-crore cash-for school-job case in West Bengal.
Bhattacharya, while expressing his willingness to turn “approver” in the school jobs case had also pleaded for exemption from the charges as an “accused” in the matter.
The court then observed that his exemption plea would be granted only if his “confidential statement” recorded in front of a judicial magistrate revealed some new information that will aid the investigation process.
Accordingly his “confidential statement” was recorded at the court of Calcutta Metropolitan Magistrate earlier this week. Now sources aware of the development said that after studying the contents of the “confidential statement”, the special court has granted approval to his plea for exemption as an accused in the case.
Bhattacharya was a member of the trustee board in Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, named after the deceased wife of Partha Chatterjee.
The main charge against the trust is that proceeds in the school-job cases received in cash were shown as donations to the trust, and subsequently, the same proceeds were used to purchase property in the name of the trust.
Legal circles are of the opinion that while the development is surely a cause of relief for Bhattacharya, the same might become a cause of concern for his father-in-law, who is still languishing behind the bars since his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in July 2022.
Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee were arrested then by the ED officials after recovery of huge cash and gold from the twin residences of the latter at that point of time. There were also charges against the duo that they floated a number of shell companies at that point of time to divert the proceeds of the alleged school- job scam.
–IANS
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