Kolkata, December 23 (NationPress) A special court in Kolkata has, on Monday, dismissed a request from an accused in the cash-for-school job scandal in West Bengal to return to his job overseas by January 2, 2025.

On this day, Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya, the son-in-law of former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, arrived in Kolkata from the US and made two requests to the special court: one for anticipatory bail and the other for permission to return abroad by the specified date.

While the court granted him conditional anticipatory bail, it refused to allow his request to leave the country by January 2.

The presiding judge noted that since he had not been arrested earlier despite being interrogated by central agencies investigating the school job case, the anticipatory bail was warranted.

However, a key condition of the anticipatory bail was that he must not exit the country without the court's prior approval. Consequently, Bhattacharya’s plea to return to his job in the US was automatically denied.

Bhattacharya is one of the 54 individuals implicated in the charge sheet submitted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) concerning this matter. The process of framing charges in the ED case is set to take place at a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata later today.

In fact, Bhattacharya had come back to Kolkata to be present for the special PMLA court's charge framing process on Monday. However, with the special court preventing him from leaving India without prior consent, it remains uncertain when he will be able to return.

Previously, he had undergone multiple rounds of questioning regarding the school job case and reportedly disclosed significant information about his father-in-law.