Bengal Guv Bose Sanctions Prosecution Against Partha Chatterjee In Multi-Crore School Job Scam

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose has sanctioned prosecution against former state education minister Partha Chatterjee in teacher recruitment scam.

West Bengal Guv CV Ananda Bose (Left) and former minister Partha Chatterjee (Right). ( Image Source :PTI )

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose has sanctioned prosecution against former state minister Partha Chatterjee in the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam which is being probed by the CBI. The suspended TMC leader is presently serving judicial custody. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had in September last year filed its first charge sheet in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam and named 16 accused, including arrested former education minister Partha Chatterjee and former SSC advisor Shanti Prasad Sinha, news agency PTI reported.

On the direction of the Calcutta High Court, the central investigating agency has been probing the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in upper primary and secondary schools in the state.

The alleged irregularities took place when Partha Chatterjee was the education minister.

Notably, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the last week of July in connection with the case. Following his arrest, Chatterjee was stripped of his portfolios and suspended by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). Sinha was arrested in August.

The CBI named 12 people, including former chairman of West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBSSC) Subiresh Bhattacharya, in the charge sheet. CBI also named an ex-advisor, a former assistant secretary of the WBSSC, two former program officers of the commission, and six others in the charge sheet submitted to the special judge, Alipore, an official of the CBI said.

"It was found that the accused, including public servants and private persons, entered into a conspiracy with one another in order to extend to unqualified candidates undue appointments to the post of an assistant teacher for Classes IX and X in secondary and higher secondary schools in West Bengal in 2016, after the expiry of that year's panel," he added.

Of the 12 named in the charge sheet, six of them -- the former chairman, ex-advisor, and then assistant secretary of WBSSC, then president of an Ad Hoc committee of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, and two private persons -- are presently in judicial custody.

"Further investigation is underway to find out if there was a larger conspiracy involved and also the role played by each of the accused," the CBI official said.

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