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Bengal recruitment scam: CBI arrests key suspect, five others
Talking on condition of anonymity, a CBI official said Mondal was summoned to the federal agency’s Kolkata office and questioned several times over the past few months but he tried to mislead the investigators
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested six, including key suspect Chandan Mondal in connection with the West Bengal school recruitment scam (WBSSC), almost eight months after he was named in court by the agency’s former additional director Upen Biswas, officials said.
The arrested accused allegedly collected bribes ranging from ₹5 lakh to ₹15 lakh to give jobs after failing the selection tests.
Mondal was arrested and brought to Kolkata’s Alipore court, that remanded him to CBI custody till February 21. While Mondal has been named as the key suspect and bribe-for-job scam, the other five allegedly worked as agents entrusted with the collection of money from job-seekers, the agency said.
Also Read: Calcutta HC cancels appointment of 1,911 school staff in Bengal recruitment scam
Speaking to media persons outside the court, Mondal said, “I am innocent. I neither accepted bribe from anyone nor did I help anyone get a job.”
Talking on condition of anonymity, a CBI official said Mondal was summoned to the federal agency’s Kolkata office and questioned several times over the past few months but he tried to mislead the investigators. He was summoned again on Friday and later arrested in the afternoon.
Biswas, who served as minister in chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet between 2011 and 2016, in June 2022, deposed as a voluntary witness before the bench of justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay who, in May, directed CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the WBSSC and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) between 2014 and 2021.
Biswas had then told the court that Mondal, a resident of North 24 Parganas district’s Bagdah assembly constituency, played a key role in recruiting teachers in exchange for money.
Biswas, 82, made headlines in 1997 by arresting the then Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam case while serving as CBI joint director (east zone).
“Chandan Mondal is just a dot in a series of people in the spider’s web. An organised operation cannot be carried out without the involvement of senior government functionaries. If they (CBI) cannot arrest a pin how can they catch the kingpin?” Biswas had told the court.
Making Biswas a party in the case, justice Gangopadhyay then ordered the CBI to form a dedicated special investigation team (SIT) to probe the scam.
On Mondal’s arrest by the probe agency, Biswas said, “The CBI has missed the bull’s eye. It should have arrested all the prime suspects long ago. Their identities were not hidden. I would say the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel investigation, is ahead of the CBI.”
Reacting to Mondal’s arrest, cabinet minister Firhad Hakim said: “The CBI is free to arrest any suspect. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) follows a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to corruption.”
Also Read: ED arrests TMC youth wing leader in West Bengal school recruitment scam
Former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide, Arpita Mukherjee, both are in judicial custody after they were arrested by ED in July last year.
In its first charge sheet filed on September 19, ED said it traced cash, jewellery and immovable property worth ₹103.10 crore linked to only Chatterjee and Mukherjee.
In October last year, TMC legislator and former president of the primary education board, Manik Bhattacharya, another key accused, was arrested by ED. He, too, is in judicial custody along with several former senior government officials and a former vice-chancellor of the University of North Bengal.
In January this year, the ED arrested Kuntal Ghosh, TMC youth wing leader, in connection with its probe into large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of teachers.
Meanwhile, the high court last week said that the recruitment for the 2,500-odd vacancies that would be created will have to be completed within the next three weeks after it cancelled the appointments of thousands of teachers in various schools.
