The CBI has started calling candidates who allegedly made it to the merit list of the 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) through unfair means, as part of its probe into corruption in school recruitments.

The CBI has identified over 8,300 candidates — of the 25,000-plus who got jobs in state-aided schools as teachers and Group C and D employees, based on their performance in the 2016 tests — who the agency thinks were recruited through unfair means.

Some of them have been asked to appear at the CBI’s Nizam Palace office this week.

“We want to hear from these candidates how they made it to the list of successful candidates and record their statements. The statements of some of those who had allegedly facilitated their recruitments are already with us. We want to cross-check the statements with those of the candidates about how they were recruited,” a senior CBI officer said.

The decision to question the candidates comes within a week of the Supreme Court staying a Calcutta High Court order cancelling the recruitment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching employees by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

The apex court allowed the probe to continue and said that those whose appointments would be found illegal would have to refund their salaries. But the court barred the CBI from taking “any precipitative action”.

Senior officers said the candidates under initial scrutiny include Group C and D employees and teachers for Classes IX to XII. They have been asked to bring several documents while appearing before a team of CBI investigators at Nizam Palace.

Documents the candidates have been asked to carry include the following:

• SLST admit card
• SLST result
• The interview letter
• Result of the medical tests
• WBSSC recommendation letter
• Appointment letter issued by the district inspector of schools
• Statements of the salary drawn from the school account

In February, the CBI had seized hard disks containing scanned OMR sheets from the Ghaziabad residence of former NYSA Communications employee Pankaj Bansal.

Some CBI officers said they were falling back on the hard disks and the data they had collected from another firm, Data Scantech, to draw up their primary list of candidates who allegedly made it to the merit list through unfair means.

The SSC had hired NYSA to scan and evaluate optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets of the 2016 state-level selection test.

The CBI later came to know that NYSA had engaged Data Scantech to scan the OMR sheets.