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CBI’s claim ex-minister was sole planner of Bengal job scam triggers row
The BJP has alleged that it was impossible for Chatterjee to run such a huge scam without consent from the TMC’s top leadership
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s statement before a Kolkata court on Saturday that former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee was the sole planner of the bribe-for-job scam in schools has triggered a political row in West Bengal.
Reacting to the CBI’s claims, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that it was impossible for Chatterjee to run such a huge scam without consent from the Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) top leadership while the TMC said the agency has not been able to prove anything till now.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting a probe against Trinamool Congress national general secretary and chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee in the same case.
Chatterjee single-handedly took decisions on key appointments in the education department to ensure smooth running of his operation and officials who did not fall in line were forced to resign, the court was told, according to lawyers who attended the hearing.
ED arrested Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee in July 2022. In its first charge sheet filed in September 2022, ED said it traced cash, jewellery and immovable property worth ₹103.10 crore linked to the duo.
The chief minister removed Chatterjee from the government and suspended him from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) days after his arrest. Chatterjee and Mukherjee have not been granted bail since then.
Opposing Chatterjee’s bail petition at Kolkata’s Alipore court, CBI’s lawyers claimed on Saturday that he ran the entire operation from behind the scene.
Lawyers of the federal agency did not name any other political leader as suspected mastermind although several TMC leaders have been arrested by CBI and ED since 2022 while many others, including Abhishek Banerjee, his wife and his parents, are under scanner. Suspected involvement of people from the chief minister’s family is a key political issue in Bengal before the Lok Sabha polls.
Reacting to the CBI’s claims, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that it was impossible for Chatterjee to run such a huge scam without consent from the TMC’s top leadership.
“Whatever CBI told the court is a matter of legal interpretation. Chatterjee was the striker of the team that led the scam. He was certainly not the captain. We refuse to believe that an institutional corruption of such a scale can be run by one individual. Nobody can deny the chief minister’s responsibility,” Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
TMC Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen said: “CBI has not been able to prove anything till now. The conviction rate in CBI investigations across India is very poor. Its neutrality and integrity have both been questioned in the past. Working at the behest of the BJP, ED is trying to malign Abhishek Banerjee but as of now CBI has not dared to do so.”
In May 2022, Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests. ED initiated a parallel probe.
Last month, CBI filed supplementary chargesheets at Alipore court in four separate cases related to the scam, naming Chatterjee as a key suspect in all four documents.
“CBI is yet to submit details of the contents recovered from digital devices seized during search operations. The agency is trying to delay the trial process,” said Biplab Goswami, one of Chatterjee’s lawyers.
No CBI official commented on Saturday’s court proceedings.
