A man whose name emerged as a suspect in the alleged corruption in school recruitments two years ago, when former minister and retired IPS officer Upen Biswas spoke of his alleged role and introduced him as “Shat Ranjan” (honest Ranjan) in a social media post, was arrested by the CBI on Friday.
Chandan Mandal, who lives in a remote village in Bagda, North 24-Parganas district, was summoned to the CBI office at Nizam Palace on Friday for interrogation on the alleged irregularities. There, he was arrested by the central agency and produced before Alipore court.
Mandal, who is a para teacher in a government-run school near his home, came to the forefront when Biswas, former Trinamul MLA from the Bagda Assembly constituency, posted on his social media account about a man whom he called “Shat Ranjan”, meaning “honest Ranjan”.
The man in question was later identified as Chandan Mandal.
Biswas had explained in his post dated April 2021 that this man not only allegedly facilitated jobs in government schools in lieu of money but also refunded the money if he failed to get the candidate a job.
“He was named ‘Shat’ (honest) because of that,” said a CBI officer.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court had taken cognisance of the social media post and ordered the CBI to initiate an inquiry into Mandal’s alleged role based on the information shared by Biswas, who is a former additional director of the CBI.
Mandal has been charged with sections of cheating, forgery and common intention.
On Friday, Mandal’s lawyer said his client had been framed by Biswas and that he had no role in the alleged recruitment scam.
CBI officers who spoke off the record said they had found “huge transactions” in Mandal’s bank accounts that need further investigation.
Mandal’s lawyer said his client had been summoned several times in the last few years and every time he had cooperated with the CBI.
CBI officers, however, said Mandal was arrested this morning after he started “non-cooperation”.
Mandal was produced before the CBI court on the premises of Alipore Judges Court. The court sent him to CBI remand till Monday.
Five more persons were arrested in connection with the case on Friday.
“The CBI today arrested six accused in an ongoing investigation of cases registered on the allegations of illegal recruitment of Group D, Group C and AssistantTeacher for Class IX-X and XIXII (SSC scam) in Bengal... It was alleged that the accused were part of the network of money collection from various candidates and facilitating employment to undeserving and unlisted candidates in various schools across West Bengal,” said a senior officer of the CBI.
The five others were identified as Subrata Samanta Roy, Koushik Ghosh, SahidImam, Sk Ali Imam and Abdul Khalek.