Two former West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) chairmen and four employees who would allegedly take orders from Subires Bhattacharyya, an ex-chairman who is in custody, were questioned by CBI officers on Monday.
The CBI is probing the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and staff in state-aided schools in West Bengal.
The two former WBSSC chairmen who were questioned were Chittaranjan Mondal and Pradip Kumar Sur. Mondal had helmed the commission from June 2011 to October 2013, and Sur from 2013 to 2014.
Bhattacharyya was the commission’s chairman from 2014 to 2018.
“We wanted to find out whether Mondal and Sur were unceremoniously removed from the post to make way for someone in particular,” said a senior CBI official.
Sur and Mondal turned up at the CBI’s Nizam Palace office on Monday morning to face a team of officers.
This was the first time since Bhattacharyya’s arrest that the CBI had called the two former chairmen for questioning.
“The CBI officers had some queries about recruitments to Group C and D posts. The conversation revolved around their queries and nothing more,” Mondal said.
CBI insiders said they questioned the employees, who would allegedly take orders from Bhattacharyya, to understand how certain key files would move from his table to that of the education minister and others during his tenure as chairman.
Mondal and Sur were questioned within two days of a special CBI court in Alipore remanding Bhattacharyya in the agency’s custody for the second time since his arrest in September.
Lawyers representing the CBI had submitted before the court that Bhattacharyya held clues to several leads in the investigation into the alleged irregularities in recruitments for government-aided schools.
Bhattacharyya’s name was first flagged in the report filed by Justice (retired) R.K. Bag committee in Calcutta High Court.
The report said 381 candidates were recruited to Group C posts in schools across West Bengal and, among them, 222 were not on the panel or waiting list.
The committee had recommended a departmental inquiry against Bhattacharyya, among others.