Paresh Chandra Adhikary, the minister of state for education, was questioned by the CBI on the third consecutive day at the central agency’s Nizam Palace office on Saturday in connection with the ongoing probe on the alleged irregular recruitments by the School Service Commission.
Adhikary was questioned for close to four hours on Saturday between 11.10am and 2.50pm.
Sources close to Adhikary said he was “cooperating” with the CBI and “complying” with whatever the central agency was asking for. “The CBI officers had asked for some documents related to recruitment of his daughter Ankita which he submitted today,” said the source.
The central agency has drawn an FIR against Adhikary, his daughter and “unknown” officials of the state government who could be party to the alleged offence of irregular recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff through the SSC.
CBI officers said if needed, they would summon Adhikary again.
The central agency on Saturday drew an FIR against Santi Prasad Sinha, the former chief of the five-member appointment committee as well as the then advisor of West Bengal Central School Service Commission and the four other members of the committee accusing them of being involved in illegal practices related to appointment of group C staff in various government-aided schools.
The FIR has a reference to then education minister Partha Chatterjee, citing that the supervisory committee, whose former members have been accused of corruption and cheating, was approved by Chatterjee.
Chatterjee, who had failed to get any relief from the higher court against the order passed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court who ordered him to face CBI interrogation, has been questioned by the central agency once earlier this week.
Sources in the central agency said they were “collecting more evidence and data” from the other people whose names have cropped up in the alleged scam.
The court has not just ordered the central agency to examine Chatterjee but also greenlighted them to take him into their custody if that was needed for the sake of investigation.
Sinha, who had been questioned several times over the past few weeks, was again called on Saturday and interrogated for several hours.