Rejecting their bail petitions, a special court in Alipore on Monday extended the judicial custody of former state cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee and six other accused in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam case till November 28.
The other accused are North Bengal University vice-chancellor Subiresh Bhattacharya, former senior SSC officials Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Shantiprasad Sinha and Ashok Saha and two middlemen Prasanna Roy and Pradeep Singh.
The seven accused were produced in the court.
Through his lawyer, Chatterjee, who has been in judicial custody for 113 days, questioned the court as for how many days he will be kept in jail “on the pretext of investigation”. “Does the CBI want to keep him in custody forever on the pretext of investigation?” the lawyer sought to know.
The lawyers of Sinha and Bhattacharya also levelled similar allegations against the CBI, raising questions on “a slow progress in the probe”. Chatterjee along with his aide Arpita Mukherjee was arrested on July 23 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after a raid at his residence. The ED is investigating the money trail in the case.
