Sanchita Chatterjee, BS News Agency: The long ordeal of 12 years and 11 months of incarceration has finally come to an end. Sudipta Sen—the alleged mastermind behind the Sarada Chit Fund scam—is finally set to walk free from prison after securing bail in every single case filed against him. On Wednesday, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, presided over by Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, granted bail to Sudipta Sen. Consequently, there remain no further legal hurdles preventing one of the key accused in the state's largest financial investment scam from stepping out of jail.
On Wednesday, the court granted bail to Sudipta Sen in the final two cases that remained under the jurisdiction of the State Police. This verdict, delivered after nearly 13 years of continuous custody, has created a stir within political circles. However, while granting bail, the court has imposed several stringent conditions. The court has stipulated that even while outside of prison, Sudipta Sen must extend his full cooperation to the ongoing investigations and is prohibited from leaving the local jurisdiction without the court's prior permission. The Sarada chief had been spending his days behind bars ever since his arrest. He faced allegations of embezzling thousands of crores of rupees and rendering hundreds of thousands of depositors destitute. He had previously secured bail in multiple cases filed by the CBI and the ED; however, his release remained stalled due to certain cases lodged by the State Police. With those final legal impediments cleared on Wednesday, it is now anticipated that he could be released from Presidency Jail as early as Thursday.
The Sarada scam had, at one point, sent shockwaves through the state's political landscape. Countless ordinary citizens lost their life savings as a result. Following a protracted legal battle, Sudipta Sen's impending release has evoked mixed reactions among the affected depositors. On the other hand, with elections looming, it remains to be seen whether the Sarada chief's release will hand the opposition a new political weapon to wield against the ruling dispensation.