Kolkata, Apr 12 (IANS): The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday witnessed high drama as the former state education minister, Partha Chatterjee (currently the state commerce & industries minister), narrowly escaped, but for just a day, the grilling by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths in connection with the agency's probe into the recruitment irregularities for various posts under the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
At around 3.50 p.m. on Tuesday, a single judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay ordered Chatterjee, also the Trinamool Congress secretary general, to be present at the CBI office in Kolkata by 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday for questioning.
The counsels of Chatterjee immediately approached a division bench of the Calcutta High Court seeking a stay on the single- judge bench order. The division bench, at around 4.15 p.m., allowed an interim stay but only till 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday when the division bench will hear the matter again.
The order of the single-judge bench has come just a day after a Calcutta High Court-appointed probe panel, on Monday submitted a report to the court claiming that the WBSSC recruitment committee formed with the concurrence of Chatterjee for recruitment is illegal.
There are two important points in the single-judge bench order on Tuesday afternoon. The first point is that under no circumstances Chatterjee will be able to get admitted in the state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital Woodburn Ward, meant for VIPs.
There second important point of the order is that the single- judge bench has authorised the CBI to even arrest Chatterjee during the course of the interrogation if the sleuths feel that the arrest is necessary.
Political observers feel that the point in the single-judge bench order barring Chatterjee from getting admitted in the Woodburn Ward is extremely crucial, since recently on April 6, 2022 Trinamool Congress strongman, Anubrata Mandal got admitted in the same Woodburn Ward on the very morning he was supposed to face CBI grilling in the coal and cattle smuggling cases.
The opposition parties in the state welcomed the order especially the bar on admission to the Woodburn Ward. Till the report was filed not a single Trinamool Congress leader came forward to give any comment on this issue.