The Calcutta High Court has rejected former West Bengal minister Sujit Bose’s bail plea in the Enforcement Directorate’s municipal recruitment case, in which investigators allege that candidates were illegally recommended for jobs at South Dum Dum Municipality.
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh dismissed Bose’s application on Tuesday. The Enforcement Directorate had arrested the former minister on May 11 in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in recruitment to municipal bodies across West Bengal.
The case concerns allegations that names of candidates were recommended improperly for appointments at South Dum Dum Municipality. According to the Enforcement Directorate’s claims, the list of alleged beneficiaries included around 150 job aspirants. The agency also suspects that money generated through the alleged corruption was transferred into bank accounts.
Bose’s lawyers argued during the hearing that his continued detention was unjustified because the investigation into the municipal recruitment case had been completed. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Bose, argued that the Enforcement Directorate could not justify keeping him in custody after the investigation had concluded. The defence also told the court that Bose’s name appeared in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s chargesheet in the case for 2024-25.
The bail plea had initially been heard by Justice Shubhra Ghosh. After hearing arguments on August 17, the judge reserved the order. Two days later, Justice Ghosh recused herself from the case, after disclosing that one of Bose’s lawyers had visited her chamber. According to the report, the judge was not present in the chamber at the time, but the lawyer had asked her personal secretary to provide access to the case file. Justice Ghosh cited this incident while withdrawing from the matter.
The case was subsequently placed before Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who heard the bail application and rejected it on Tuesday. The order means that Bose’s request for release in the Enforcement Directorate case has not been accepted by the High Court at this stage.
The allegations place municipal recruitment at the centre of a wider institutional question: how appointments in urban local bodies are processed, recommended and monitored. Municipalities are responsible for essential civic functions, and recruitment in these institutions affects the staffing of departments that deliver services to residents. In this case, however, the court development concerns the bail application and the allegations presented by the investigating agency; the supplied report does not establish a final finding of guilt.
The next legal steps will depend on further proceedings in the case. The High Court’s latest development is the dismissal of Bose’s bail plea following the transfer of the matter from Justice Ghosh’s court to Justice Tirthankar Ghosh’s bench.
