The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday made its first arrest in the West Bengal teachers' recruitment scam (SSC scam). The investigating agency arrested Shanti Prasad Sinha, former advisor of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) and Ashok Saha, former chairman of SSC.
Sinha and Saha were questioned several times by the probe agency in connection with the case. On Wednesday, they were taken into custody after hours of interrogation.
A CBI statement alleged that the duo violated several rules of the SSC and recommended unsuccessful candidates for vacancies of Group C staff in an unauthorised manner. Further, they also forged the signatures of authorised people to carry out these recommendations.
Thereafter, the appointment letters were issued to these candidates and the names of the people were not published on the website. This disrupted the normal chain of the hierarchy of teachers, debarring the deserving candidates from getting their regular salaried jobs.
On July 23, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with its investigation into the teacher recruitment scam and detained Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee. Following multiple raids at Mukherjee's different flats, nearly Rs 50 crore in cash has been seized along with jewellery.
A court on Friday sent Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee to 14-day judicial custody.
Special PMLA court judge Jibon Kumar Sadhu granted 14 days' judicial remand of Chatterjee and Mukherjee on a prayer by the ED. It rejected a bail prayer for Chatterjee and directed that Chatterjee and Mukherjee be produced again on August 18 when the matter will be heard again.
Meanwhile, the ED sent a notice to Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya in connection with the case. He was asked to appear before the investigating officer at the ED office in Kolkata next week.
