Kolkata: In a major relief to Saradha chit fund scam accused Kunal Ghosh, the Calcutta High Court granted interim bail to him on Wednesday. The period of the bail has been set up to November 11. The suspended Trinamool Congress MP, who is now in custody, is likely to walk out of jail on Thursday.
Ghosh, who was arrested by the Bidhannagar City Police on November 23 in 2013 and was later chargesheeted by the CBI in the Saradha scam, has already spent more than two years in custody. He was granted bail against a bond of Rs 2 lakhs by the division bench of Justice Asim Kumar Ray and Justice Malay Marut Banerjee of the high court.
The high court however imposed some conditions while granting bail to Ghosh. The MP has to submit his passport to the CBI and has to appear before the agency once a week. The high court also empowered the CBI to call Ghosh for questioning whenever required.
He has also been barred from travelling outside the jurisdiction of Narkeldanga police station where his residence is located. The high court's order came a day after it observed that there was no need to keep him behind bars any more.
The division bench held that the law of the land does not provide for any ground to keep Ghosh in custody further. On Tuesday Justice Ray chastised CBI lawyer K Raghavacharyulu who opposed the MP's bail prayer and sought more time for hearing.
Earlier, former Trinamool minister Madan Mitra was granted bail by the Alipore Court on September 9.
