A division bench of Calcutta High Court headed by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty on Thursday said the CBI would continue to probe the alleged irregularities in recruitment to municipalities.
The division bench also turned down a plea from the Bengal government to allow state police to investigate the allegations of corruption.
Upholding an order passed by the single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay for a CBI investigation, the division bench said on Thursday the two cases of irregularities in appointments in schools and municipalities were inextricably linked.
The irregularities in recruitments in different municipalities surfaced when the Enforcement Directorate allegedly stumbled upon several OMR sheets that were used for the recruitment tests at businessman Ayan Sil’s office.
The ED had raided Sil’s office in March before arresting him for his alleged involvement in the school job scam.
Sil, who is now in judicial custody, was also allegedly involved in recruiting close to 5,000 candidates to different permanent posts across municipalities, the ED later said.
The businessman, who owns ABS Infozon, a company that was entrusted with barcoding and evaluating OMR sheets, has been accused of selling jobs by the central investigating agencies.
On Thursday, the division bench said the same people were affected in these two cases and the younger generation was disillusioned with the level of corruption.
The CBI carried out search operations across 15 municipalities, including Baranagar, Dum Dum, Kamarhati, Panihati, North Dum Dum, New Barrackpore, Halisahar, Titagarh and Shantipur municipalities on June 7.
On April 21, Justice Gangopadhyay had directed the CBI to probe the alleged irregularities in municipal recruitments. Justice Amrita Sinha upheld the order after the case was assigned to her.
CBI officers said they were in the process of sending summons to some officials for questioning after going through the files related to recruitments in different posts.