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Hearing the bail petition of former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, the Supreme Court today questioned the Enforcement Directorate over the low conviction rate in money laundering cases and asked how long the senior politician can be kept behind bars.
Mr Chatterjee, once a trusted lieutenant of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and the Education Minister in her cabinet, was arrested in July 2022 in a money laundering case linked to the alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state. He has since been removed as minister and suspended from the Trinamool Congress.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Mr Chatterjee, pointed out that the trial is yet to begin and the veteran leader has already been in jail for 2.5 years in a case in which the punishment is 7-year imprisonment. "Trial is yet to start, there are 183 witnesses, four supplementary prosecution complaints, he is 73 years of age," he said. Mr Rohatgi said that even Mr Chatterjee's aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose home a mountain of cash was recovered, has been granted bail.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said it is a "big case in which people were deprived of jobs and undeserving candidates appointed". He said Arpita Mukherjee had said that the massive cash recovered from her premises belonged to Partha Chatterjee. Mr Rohatgi said nothing was recovered from the minister.
The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan pointed out that the trial was yet to begin and hundreds of witnesses needed to be examined. "This is not the only case pending before the court you see... how long can we keep him behind bars?"
While acknowledging that the ED has a Herculean task on its hands and the allegations against the minister are "very serious", the court said, "If in the ultimate analysis, he is not convicted, then what will happen? what will happen to the three years gone by."
The court then asked the Centre's lawyer, "What is your conviction rate for ED? It is very, very poor... We would have understood if it was 60 to 70 percent."
Mr Raju said he was sure the minister would be convicted in this case and sentenced to seven years.
When the bench asked what will happen if he was released on bail, the Centre's lawyer said, "There will be a retraction of statements by witnesses. Arpita is a close aide too."
When Mr Rohatgi said it was a "horrendous argument", Mr Raju replied it was a "horrendous crime". The Centre's lawyer said this was not a case to exercise discretion. "This is about neck-deep corruption... there are extreme and soft cases, this is an extreme case."
Mr Rohatgi said the delay in the start of trial is the government's problem. "This is not the law of bail and this court has tried to correct and steady the law on bail in the last six months," he said, referring to the relief extended to AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and DMK's Senthil Balaji.
The court then said it is "very easy for a political person to indulge in corruption and then say all this". The matter was posted for Monday.