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Cal HC asks CBI to question former WBSSC advisor in school recruitment scam
In 2016, the Mamata Banerjee-administration had recommended the appointment of around 13,000 non-teaching staff in state-aided schools. The WBSSC had conducted examinations and interviews. A panel was set up. Allegations surfaced that the commission made around 500 irregular recruitments after the expiry of the term of the panel.
A single judge bench of the Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to interrogate the former advisor of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in the alleged recruitment scam in schools.
The bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed the regional head of the CBI to interrogate SP Sinha by Thursday midnight. The court said that Sinha was one of the kingpins of the alleged corruption of giving illegal public appointment.
“In such circumstances a thorough probe is required to bust the racket of giving illegal appointments. I have found from other similar matters that the said Dr. Santi Prasad Sinha is one of the kingpins of this corruption of giving illegal public appointment. Hence, I direct the regional head of the Central Bureau of Investigation to call SP Sinha in course of the day and start questioning him. The CBI is directed to initiate the said interrogation in course of the day - I mean by 12 midnight today,” the order stated.
The court will hear the matter again on April 11. Sinha, however, could not be contacted throughout the day. Senior TMC leaders refused to comment as the case was being heard by the court. A CBI official later said that Sinha could not be traced till around 10 pm. The agency officials could not contact him on his phone. He was not available at his home when the officials went there.
In 2016, the Mamata Banerjee-administration had recommended the appointment of around 13,000 non-teaching staff in state-aided schools. The WBSSC had conducted examinations and interviews. A panel was set up. Allegations surfaced that the commission made around 500 irregular recruitments after the expiry of the term of the panel.
Earlier the single judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay had on two occasions ordered a CBI to probe into the alleged recruitment scam. While it was once quashed by the division bench on another occasion it was stayed. The division bench had even set up a committee headed by former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh to probe into the alleged irregularities.
Upon perusal of the record, the court noted that the commission stated they did not recommend those candidates although the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) had averred that they had recommended them on the basis of the recommendations received by them from the commission.
The commission in an affidavit filed before the high court had submitted that 96 recommendation letters which appears to have been issued between September 2019 and December 2019 had not been issued by the commission.
“It appeared that on the basis of some recommendation from outside the office of the commission at the instance of Sinha, the recommendation letters were printed by the Programme Officer wherein the signatures of the Chairman of the Commission were mechanically printed. The Chairman was kept in the dark,” the court stated.
On Wednesday the single judge bench took strong objection to the direction issued by the division bench comprising Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta to take on record the affidavit of assets that is to be filed by S.P. Sinha, former SSC advisor, in a ‘sealed cover’.
