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High court asks TMC minister to face CBI, division bench grants temporary relief
A single bench of the Calcutta high court ordered TMC minister Partha Chatterjee to face CBI in the alleged teacher’s recruitment scam. However, later in the day, a division bench of the court stayed the order till Wednesday morning.
KOLKATA: A single bench of the Calcutta high court on Tuesday ordered West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee to face the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the alleged teacher’s recruitment scam, however, later in the day, a division bench stayed the order till Wednesday morning providing temporary relief to the TMC leader.
The division bench will hear the matter on Wednesday around 10:30 am.
This has been seen as a major setback to Chatterjee, a former education minister who presently holds multiple portfolios in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet including commerce and industry, IT and electronics and parliamentary affairs. He is also the Trinamool Congress’ state secretary general.
“The single bench of justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered that Chatterjee would have to appear before CBI by 5:30 on Tuesday. The bench also stated that Chatterjee under no circumstances can get himself admitted in the Woodburn block of the state-run SSKM hospital,” said Firdaus Shamim, advocate of the one of the petitioners in the case.
It may be recalled that Anubrata Mondol, the president of the ruling Trinamool Congress’ unit in Birbhum district had to be admitted in the SSKM hospital after he was summoned by CBI in connection with multi-crore cattle smuggling scam.
Earlier in May 2021, state ministers and TMC MLAs had to be admitted in the Woodburn block of the hospital after being arrested by CBI in connection with the Narada sting operation case.
In 2016, the Mamata Banerjee-administration recommended the appointment of around 13,000 non-teaching staff in state-aided schools. The state School Service Commission conducted examinations and interviews. An advisory panel was set up. Allegations surfaced that SSC made more than 600 irregular recruitments after the expiry of the panel.
Allegations of corruption also surfaced in the recruitment of teachers for classes IX and X in government schools. The CBI is probing these cases on the orders of the Calcutta high court.
An inquiry committee constituted by the high court under a former judge said in its report on Monday that an advisory panel constituted by the personal secretary of then education minister Partha Chatterjee issued “fake” recommendation letters based on which appointments were made in government and aided schools.
“The illegal advisory panel held more than one meeting. The minister’s personal secretary and officer on special duty were there in the meetings. The court earlier said that whether the minister was aware of the meetings is subject to investigation. There was a financial transaction against which government jobs were sold. The entire money trail needs to be dug out,” said Sabyasachi Chatterjee, a high court advocate.
Even though TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh refused to comment on the day’s developments saying that it was a sub-judice case and pertained to legal proceedings, the BJP took a dig at the ruling TMC.
“It is very unfortunate that we have to see this day when an education minister has been ordered by the court to face the CBI. If he is not involved, he should face CBI with his head held high and cooperate to find the actual culprits,” said Dilip Ghosh, BJP’s national vice president.
