Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 25 2022 at 18:41 IST
The Calcutta High Court allowed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) plea to shift West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee, who is accused in the school jobs scam, from the SSKM Super Speciality Hospital in Calcutta to the AllIndia Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Orissa’s Bhubaneshwar during a special seating held on Sunday.
After noting that there is a dubious record of Trinamool Congress members seeking shelter at SSKM hospital on medical grounds when faced with interrogation by authorities, Justice Bibek Chaudhuri allowed the plea.
Therefore, on July 25, 2022, early in the morning, ED was allowed to fly the accused by air ambulance to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.
The Court said that the accused must be examined by a team of specialists in cardiology, nephrology, respiratory medicine, and endocrinology at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, and their report must be given to the ED by July 25.
The same must then be submitted to the Special PMLA court that is hearing the case.
On ED’s plea challenging two directions passed by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (in charge), Calcutta, on July 23, the Court passed the order.
While the first direction allowed Chatterjee to to have his counsel accompany him while the investigation was underway, the second direction had allowed Chatterjee to be taken to SSKM hospital for a checkup and, if necessary, for treatment.
On Sunday, the High Court set aside both of these directions on the groundthat it was patently illegal, thereby the first direction was set aside.
The Court also noted that the allegation made against the ED that the accused’s advocate was not allowed to be present during the raid was palpably false because examination of the case diary showed that Chatterjee’s lawyer was present when the ED conducted a raid at the accused’s house and had talked with the accused.
In regards to the second direction, the Court proceeded to make adverse observation against the hospital.