East Bengal chief Subhas Bhowmick faces 3-year prison term

Kolkata: Subhas Bhowmick, technical director of East Bengal football club, was sentenced to three years imprisonment in connection with a bribery case of December 2005, by the Special Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Alipore on Monday.

The former coach of East Bengal was, however, granted bail against a payment of Rs 1 lakh, owing to his illness, soon after the quantum of punishment was announced. Bhowmick may appeal to a higher forum, challenging the verdict of the Alipore court by September 18.

The anti-corruption branch of CBI had arrested Bhowmick in December 2005 near the front gate of the South Club in Kolkata, while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from a businessman to settle his excise duty related cases. Ghosh was a senior Central Excise official, when the arrest was made. This case has been underway in court for almost 13 years and the verdict was finally passed on Monday. The CBI sleuths claimed that Bhowmick had demanded a sum of Rs 4 lakh as bribe from a company, which was finally settled at Rs 1.5 lakh. He had also tried to run away from the scene by attacking some CBI personnel, which had resulted in injury to a senior ranking officer of the central investigating agency. Popularly known as Bhombol in the football arena of the state, the former football player had to remain in jail custody for some time soon after his arrest and was then granted bail.

Bhowmick had played for both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan and was known as a powerful forward with good goal scoring abilities. He had represented India in various tournaments. He was a member of the Indian football team that had won the bronze medal in the Asian Games in 1970. He has been very successful as a coach for East Bengal. He had a forgettable first stint with the club during the 1999-2000 season. However, during his second stint as coach, the club won a multitude of trophies, including back to back National Football League titles in 2002-03 and 2003–04, apart from Kolkata Football League, Durand Cup and IFA Shield victories.

East Bengal also won the LG ASEAN Club Cup in 2003 under his managership. Bhowmick stepped down as coach of East Bengal in 2005, after being implicated in the bribery scandal.

He coached Mohammedan Sporting Club during the 2006 season, but was not as successful there as he was during his stint with EB.