IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Bail – Offence of money laundering – Appellant has been a Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly since 2001 – Prolonged incarceration of accused awaiting trial unjustly deprives them of their right to personal liberty – Even statutory embargoes on grant of bail must yield when weighed against paramount importance of right to life and liberty under Article 21 of Constitution.
(2) While accused person’s official status should not be grounds for denying bail, it also cannot constitute a special consideration to grant bail if otherwise no case is made out to provide such relief.

ORDER

Leave granted.

2. The Appellant has been a Member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly since 2001, and was a member of the ruling party of the State at the relevant time. He was inducted as a Minister in the West Bengal State cabinet between 2011 and 2022 and seems to have held the post of the State Education Minister since 2016. During his tenure as the State Education Minister, recruitments to various posts like: (i) Primary School Teachers; (ii) Assistant School Teachers; (iii) Group C staff; and (iv) Group D staff, took place from time to time.

3. Writ petitions were filed before the High Court of Calcutta (High Court), questioning the legitimacy of the procedures followed in the aforementioned recruitments. Most pertinently, proceedings were initiated by unsuccessful candidates in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) conducted by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, vide WPA No. 9979/2022, alleging corrupt practices in the recruitment process of Primary School Teachers. In the light of serious allegations having been made, the High Court on 08.06.2022 directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and also to register a case in this regard.

4. Consequently, the CBI registered FIR RC0102022A0006 (Predicate FIR) on 09.06.2022, under Sections 7, 7A and 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act), as well as Sections 120B, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), against certain functionaries of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, and one Ranjan@Chandan Mondal who was allegedly engaged in an unholy nexus with varied authorities, so as to facilitate appointments of primary school teachers in exchange for substantial sums of money. The said FIR was registered on the basis that the selection process of Assistant Teachers and Primary School Teachers had been conducted in a dubious manner, considering that the answer key for the TET was designed in a way that would deprive eligible candidates and, instead, facilitate back door entry to such ineligible candidates who submitted blank examination papers.

5. The Predicate FIR dated 09.06.2022 registered by the CBI, led the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also to take cognizance and register ECIR No. KLZO-11/19/2022 on 24.06.2022, against the aforestated office bearers and Ranjan@Chandan Mondal, containing the same allegations as in the CBI Case. On this basis, a prima facie case for the offence of ‘money laundering’ under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) was stated to have been made out.

6. The ED conducted a raid at the premises of the Appellant on 22.07.2022 and recorded his statement under Section 17 of the PMLA. During the said search, incriminating documents pertaining to: (i) twelve immoveable properties in the name of the Appellant’s close associate; and (ii) documents showcasing the appointment of Group D staff such as admit cards of candidates, intimation letters for verification of testimonials and personality test, application forms etc. are claimed to have been recovered. The searches conducted at the residential premises of the Appellant’s close aide further led to the seizure of cash amounting to Rs. 21.90 crores and gold jewellery amounting to Rs. 76,97,100/-.

7. Additionally, based on the interrogation of the alleged close associate and scrutiny of the documents already seized, further search was conducted, whereby cash amounting to Rs. 27.90 crores and gold amounting to Rs. 4.31 crores were seized from the premises connected to companies that de facto were stated to belong to the Appellant, where he had allegedly appointed dummy directors. A deeper probe further revealed that these companies had been used to acquire, possess, conceal, appropriate, project and claim large- scale proceeds of crime.

8. In the wake of these allegations, the Appellant was arrested by the ED under Section 19 of the PMLA, on 23.07.2022. The Special Court (CBI) (