A city court on Thursday extended the judicial remand of former state education minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the alleged corruption in recruitment of teachers and staff in government schools in Bengal.
The CBI, which is probing the case, submitted before CBI Court I in Alipore on Thursday that Chatterjee, being the alleged “mastermind” in the “recruitment scam”, played a “dubious role” in appointment of accused Santi Prasad Sinha as an adviser at the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBSSC) in order to allegedly control the “alleged irregular recruitments”.
“Investigation has revealed Partha Chatterjee, without proper justification and against the statutory rule of the SSC, removed Sharmila Mitra from the post of chairperson of West Bengal Central School Service Commission, to ensure the accused Santi Prasad Sinha could carry out his fraudulent activities smoothly in connection with alleged illegalities pertaining to illegal recruitments at SSC with impunity,” the CBI said before the court.
The CBI said it had found “fresh evidence” about alleged agents approaching undeserving candidates and promising them appointments in exchange for money.
Payments, the CBI said, were made either directly by undeserving candidates or through agents.
“Instances of financial transactions amongst the suspects — public servants/ agents/undeserving candidates have been revealed during the investigation and further money trail involved in this case is being vigorously pursued through sustained interrogation of suspects,” said the CBI counsel.
Chatterjee’s defence lawyers said though a chargesheet had been submitted in this case, the central agency was prolonging his remand in the name of investigation.
The court extended Chatterjee’s judicial remand till March 2.
Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education; Ashoke Kumar Saha, former secretary of the SSC; Santi Prasad Sinha, former chairman of SSC’s advisory committee; and Subires Bhattacharyya, who was vice-chancellor of North Bengal University were also produced in connection with the case and remanded in judicial custody till March 2.
Enforcement Directorate probe
Two senior ED officials visited Presidency correctional home on Thursday to question Trinamul youth leader Kuntal Ghosh about his alleged monetary transaction with Chatterjee.
The ED had told Bankshall Court on Tuesday that Chatterjee received Rs 10 lakh from Ghosh for offering jobs to the latter’s candidates.