The CBI on Wednesday lodged an FIR in the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment case.
The central investigating agency submitted a copy of the FIR in the court of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court. As ordered by the judge, the copy was produced before the registrar general of the high court as the case is being heard by a division bench of the court.
The CBI felt after questioning S.P. Sinha, former chairman of the advisory committee of the SSC, that some irregularities had taken place in the recruitment of teachers and other staff by the commission for schools, the lawyer representing the agency submitted in Justice Gangopadhyay’s court.
The lawyer prayed for an order to include Samarjit Acharya, programming officer of the SSC, in the case.
Justice Gangopadhyay allowed the prayer and directed Acharya to meet the investigators by 6pm on Wednesday.
Acharya was allegedly entrusted with the job of issuing recommendation letters for candidates. He is said to have had the authority to use the digital seal and signature of then SSC advisory committee chairman Sinha.
Justice Gangopadhyay also gave liberty to the CBI to call Sinha for further questioning.
A division bench headed by Justice Subrata Talukdar has been assigned by Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava to hear appeals related to the SSC recruitment case.
In response to an appeal by Sinha on Tuesday, the division bench did not order a stay on Justice Gangopadhyay's directive that he be questioned by the CBI, but asked the investigators not to arrest Sinha till further orders.
Sinha appeared before the CBI on Tuesday evening. After interrogating him, the CBI decided to initiate a probe.
Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, counsel for the original petitioners in the recruitment case, told reporters outside the court that many more “important persons” would come under the scanner of investigators.
“It is perhaps the biggest scam in recent years. Many other important persons will be implicated,” Bhattacharyya said.
The petitioners in 10 cases had alleged before the court of Justice Gangopadhyay that thousands of candidates whose names did not figure on merit lists of the SSC had been appointed as teachers and Group C and D staff for schools.
Justice Gangopadhyay had passed separate orders, asking the CBI to probe the allegations. But all three orders were stayed by a division bench of the court.
A controversy erupted after Justice Gangopadhyay openly criticised the division bench's decision. Later, that division bench refused to hear the appeals related to the cases on “personal grounds”.
After that three other division benches refused to hear the case. The matter finally came up for hearing before the division bench headed by Justice Talukdar.