ED likely to move court again on Sujay Bhadra’s voice sample test

Kolkata: Enforcement Directorate (ED) was considering approaching the Calcutta High Court again over the delay in getting green signal from state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College & Hospital in South Kolkata for conducting voice sampling test of Sujay Krishna Bhadra, a prime accused in the multi- crore cash for school job case in West Bengal.

Sources said that on November 6, the ED had sent a fresh communiqué to the SSKM authorities seeking time for conducting the voice sample test of Bhadra.

Sources added that the SSKM authorities had finally replied to the communiqué from the central agency. In the reply, sources said, the SSKM authorities had said that only the medical board can take a decision in the matter and in case the medical condition of the accused will be the factor of prime consideration.

ED sleuths feel that since all these complications will delay the process of conducting voice sampling and subsequently also delay the entire investigation process in the school job case, time has come to update the Calcutta High Court in the matter. The court has directed the central agency to wind up the investigation in the matter by December 31.

Although a special court in Kolkata has authorised the central agency sleuths to conduct Bhadra’s voice sampling test at the hospital, the court maintained that the test can be done only after the permission of doctors there.

That is exactly where a previous attempt by the ED sleuths last month to conduct the test failed. On October 26, although the ED sleuths reached the said hospital for the same, they were denied permission and had to return empty-handed as the medical team of the hospital denied permission for the same. The permission was denied on the ground that Bhadra is not in a position to bear the stress of the voice sample test. Bhadra was recently shifted to a cabin under the cardiology department of the hospital from the intensive care unit