After spending more than five months in jail, CPI(M) MLA Sushanta Ghosh received a breather on Friday when the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the Benachapra human skeleton recovery case, relating to the slaughter of seven Trinamul Congress activists on September 22, 2002.
The criminal investigation department (CID) of the West Bengal police which probed the case had booked him for murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code in its chargesheet.
As an MLA, Mr Ghosh has created a record of sorts by being in jail custody for the longest period of time before a trial by the court. Since August 20, 2011, the former minister was in jail custody at the Alipore Central Correctional Home. He will also have to spend Friday night there as jail superintendent Chittaranjan Ghorai said: “We are yet to receive the court order about his release.”
Mr Ghosh is expected to be released from the jail on Saturday and the charges will be framed in the case at Midnapore court on February 16.