After HC order, CBI’s Aswin Shenvi takes charge of SIT probing Bengal job scam | Kolkata - Hindustan Times
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After HC order, CBI’s Aswin Shenvi takes charge of SIT probing Bengal job scam

Nov 21, 2022 06:37 PM IST

Deputy inspector general of police (DIG) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Aswin Shenvi took charge of the SIT probing the school recruitment scam in West Bengal on Monday

Following a Calcutta high court order, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Aswin Shenvi took charge of the agency’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the school recruitment scam in West Bengal, on Monday, officials said.

The Calcutta high court ordered on November 18 that CBI’s Aswin Shenvi has to take charge of the SIT in seven days. (File Photo)
The Calcutta high court ordered on November 18 that CBI’s Aswin Shenvi has to take charge of the SIT in seven days. (File Photo)

Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered on November 18 that Shenvi, a 2006-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Haryana cadre, has to take charge of the SIT in seven days.

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A CBI officer on condition of anonymity said that Shenvi, who joined the agency in 2020, held a meeting with the SIT members at the agency’s office at Nizam Palace in south Kolkata soon after arriving in the city on Monday. During the day, the CBI started interrogating 15 sub-inspectors of the school education department for their suspected role in recruitments in Murshidabad district. They were all summoned to Nizam Palace.

The judge, who ordered a CBI probe into the case in May, observed several times during recent hearings that the investigation needed to be expedited.

On November 16, the judge criticised the CBI saying the probe was moving slowly and ordered reconstitution of the SIT. The CBI informed the court that Akhilesh Singh, who was heading the SIT under court’s order, recently left the federal agency and returned to his home cadre. The judge then asked the CBI to provide the names of three officers of DIG-rank.

“The CBI has submitted the names of Sudhanshu Khare, Michaelraj S and Ashwin Shenvi. I select Mr Ashwin Shenvi, who is DIG ACB (anti-corruption bureau) in CBI, Chandigarh, who has vast experience in investigation of corruption cases,” justice Gangopadhyay said in court on November 18.

“Mr Shenvi cannot be transferred to any other post without the leave of the court,” the judge said.

He also observed that the recruitment scam is an organised crime and he does not want the probe to slow down like the investigations into the Sarada chit fund scam and the Narada sting operation.

In May, justice Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to probe the appointment of a few hundred non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE). The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of 5-15 lakh after failing selection tests.

The recruitments took place in phases during former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee’s tenure as education minister from 2014 to 2021.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe, arrested Chatterjee and his aide, Arpita Mukherjee, on July 23. The ED has filed its charge sheet against both and also against six shell companies that Chatterjee allegedly ran to siphon money.

Chatterjee and Mukherjee are now in judicial custody.

In September, the CBI arrested former WBBSE president Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay in the bribe-for-job case. He served as president of the board for 10 years before retiring recently.

Chatterjee claimed in court that he had left the recruitment process to a high-powered advisory committee. The committee’s chief adviser, Shanti Prasad Sinha, has been arrested by CBI along with Ashok Saha, a senior WBSSC officer.

On October 11, TMC legislator Manik Bhattacharya was arrested by the ED. He was chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education.

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