Kolkata, March 19 : The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of private promoter Ayan Sil in connection with the multi-crore municipalities recruitment case in West Bengal.

Sil, also an accused in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal, was recently granted bail by another bench of the High Court in the case. However, he had to continue behind bars because of the pending case registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the municipalities' recruitment case.

Thereafter, Sil moved the division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Smita Das with a bail plea in the municipalities' recruitment case.

However, with the division bench rejecting the bail plea, the chances of Sil being freed have now faded out for the time being. On Wednesday, the CBI counsel argued in the court that the investigating officials have definite clues of Sil securing jobs in several municipalities to ineligible candidates securing money.

Since the investigation process in the matter is yet to be completed, it could be affected if Sill is granted bail now, the CBI counsel argued.

Sil's counsel, in his counter-argument, pointed out that of the 17 municipalities that are under scanner, a charge sheet has been filed in the case of just one municipality, and hence there is no reason to keep his clients behind bars till the process is completed.

However, the division bench accepted the arguments of the CBI counsel and rejected the bail plea.

Sil was arrested by ED officials in the school jobs case in March 2023. In fact, during his arrest, the ED recovered several documents from his residence that for the first time threw light on the municipalities' recruitment irregularities.

Later, he was shown as arrested by both the ED and the CBI in the municipalities' recruitment irregularities cases. In this case, Sil was accused of arranging jobs in at least 17 municipalities in West Bengal against money. The total number of recruitments made illegally in these 17 municipalities stood at 1,821.

The total scam size in the municipalities' recruitment irregularities cases, as estimated by the central agency officials, is around Rs 200 crore. Most of these 17 municipalities where such recruitment irregularities took place were from the North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts.

/IANS