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Judge orders arrest of 4 school teachers in CBI’s Bengal recruitment case
The four teachers, who are residents of Murshidabad district, were taken to Presidency correctional home after being remanded in judicial custody for 14 days
KOLKATA: A Kolkata court on Monday ordered the arrest of four school teachers who appeared as witnesses for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the West Bengal bribe-for-job case, officials of the federal agency said.
Special CBI judge Arpan Chattopadhyay said the four men, who were named by CBI as its witnesses in one of its chargesheets, were guilty of paying bribes to get appointed as teachers in state-run schools although they were not eligible.
CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), which are carrying out a parallel investigation into the Bengal school recruitment cases, have identified many people who paid bribes to get jobs. A CBI official said this was the first time that the court ordered their arrest.
“The four men, Zahiruddin Sheikh, S Hussain, Sehgal Hossain and Saugata Mondal, were remanded in judicial custody for 14 days,” the official said.
The accused, who are residents of Murshidabad district, were taken to Presidency correctional home on Monday evening.
“The judge pulled up the CBI’s lawyer, asking why people accused of paying bribes are being treated as witnesses,” the CBI officer added.
In May 2022, Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered 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.
The suspected involvement of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders surfaced after ED arrested education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee in July 2022. In the first charge sheet filed on September 19 last year, ED said it traced cash, jewellery and immovable property worth ₹103.10 crore linked to the two.
Manik Bhattacharya, Palashipara legislator in Nadia district and former president of the primary education board, was arrested by ED in October last year. Jiban Krishna Saha, TMC legislator from Barwan in Murshidabad district, was arrested by CBI on April 17.
Manik Bhattacharya’s wife Satarupa Bhattacharya, who was arrested by ED in February this year, was granted bail by the Calcutta high court on Monday. She is the first person to have been granted bail in the case.
