New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested two former officials of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) for their alleged involvement in the "irregularities" in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government-sponsored and -aided schools, news agency PTI reported. According to the report, these were the first arrests made by the central agency in the school jobs scam, officials said.
According to former advisor of the School Service Commission, Dr Shanti Prasad Sinha and its former secretary Ashok Kumar Saha were arrested by the central agency on Wednesday evening after a day-long interrogation.
"Both were non-cooperative and tried to mislead our detectives during the questioning. As they were hiding information, we decided to arrest them and interrogate them in our custody," PTI quoted one of the officials as saying.
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According to the report, they were taken to the SSKM Hospital for medical check-ups, and then to the agency's office, after their arrests. They will be produced before a court on Thursday.
The CBI has registered FIRs under non-bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Sinha, Saha and three other officers - Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Soumitra Sarkar and Samarjit Acharya in the alleged scam.
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According to the report, the central probe agency alleged in the FIR that the School Service Commission advisory committe was formed on the insistence of the then education minister Partha Chatterjee, who was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Department (ED) which is tracking the money trail in the scam.
It is to be noted that Partha Chatterjee's close associate Arpita Mukherjee was also arrested by the ED in this connection.