Saradha accused and Trinamool leader Madan Mitra gets bail

A city court today granted bail to senior Trinamool Congress leader and multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam accused Madan Mitra, over 21 months after his arrest by the CBI.
Alipore Sessions Court judge Uttam Kumar Nandy granted the relief to Mitra on a bail bond and surety of Rs 15 lakh each, rejecting the CBI's opposition.
Imposing conditions on his bail, the court directed that Mitra would have to appear before the CBI investigating officer once a week, surrender his passport and would not leave Alipore sessions court's jurisdiction.
The former West Bengal Transport minister has been charged under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.

The order came a day after Mitra's counsel pleaded for bail submitting that the TMC leader was no longer an influential person since he was neither a minister or an MLA now, nor he was holding any post in the party.
Mitra's counsel also alleged that the CBI was delaying the investigation and as such Mitra should be granted bail.

The CBI counsel opposed his prayer, saying that the investigation into the Saradha scam, involving over Rs 2,500 crore of public money, was at a crucial stage and releasing Mitra now would hamper the process because the former minister is still a very influential person and has access to key witnesses in the case.

Mitra, who was arrested on December 12, 2014, for his alleged complicity in the Saradha scam, had earlier been granted bail by the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) of Alipore sessions court on October 31, 2015 after several of his bail pleas were rejected by different courts.
But the breather had turned out to be brief as the Calcutta High Court cancelled his bail on November 19 on a petition by the investigating agency.