Bengal school job case: Calcutta HC irked at delay in beginning of trial process

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday expressed its anguish at the delay in beginning the trial process in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

The division bench of Justices Jaymalya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta directed the CBI to immediately start the trial process.

It also directed the central agency to file a detailed affidavit in the matter within the next three weeks.

Hearing the anticipatory bail plea of the two accused in the case, Kuntal Ghosh and Niladri Saha, Justice Bagchi observed that the delay in the beginning of the trial process would result in a delay in punishment for the genuine offenders in the case and, hence the entire process will become a laughing stock.

"In case of the delay in the beginning of the trial process, the matter will fade out of the memories of the common people and all investigation efforts will be fruitless," he observed.

Justice Bagchi also referred to the examples of countries like Singapore and Japan where the trial processes are completed speedily.

Recently, the CBI has said that the trial process against some key accused in the case might be delayed because of the lack of necessary state government approval regarding the arrests of some key officials attached to different wings of the Education Department, currently in judicial custody.