West Bengal School Jobs Scam: CBI files charge sheet, names ex-minister Partha Chatterjee

KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday filed its first charge sheet in a Special CBI court in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam, naming ex-education minister Partha Chatterjee as one of the accused.

The charge sheet also named 15 others as accused including former SSC advisor Shanti Prasad Sinha, ex-SSC assistant secretary Ashok Kumar Saha and the then president of Adhoc Committee at the Board of Secondary Education, Kalyanmoy Ganguly.

Several ‘illegally appointed candidates’ were also named in the charge sheet. It was alleged in this case that the accused people entered into a conspiracy with one another to extend undue advantage in the matter of giving appointments to unqualified candidates to Group-C posts at various schools after the expiry of a panel.

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The investigating agency, on the direction of the Calcutta High Court, is probing 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 Chatterjee was the education minister.

Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the last week of July when he was the state’s industry and commerce minister. Following the arrest, he was stripped of his portfolios. The ruling Trinamool Congress also suspended him. The CBI arrested Sinha in August. Chatterjee, Sinha, Ganguly and Saha are now in judicial custody.