CBI adds seven officers to probe Bengal job scam
The Enforcement Directorate, conducting a parallel probe, arrested education min Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee on July 23 last year.
Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has brought seven officers from other states to Bengal to add momentum to its probe in the bribe-for-job scam in the education department, an officer of the federal agency said on condition of anonymity.
The officers include a superintendent from the anti-corruption branch in Delhi, three deputy superintendents from Visakhapatnam, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, two inspectors from Visakhapatnam and Bhopal and a sub-inspector from Dhanbad.
They will be staying in Bengal for at least two months to help their colleagues, the CBI officer said, citing an official circular.
The move came in the wake of repeated criticism from two Calcutta high court judges, Abhijit Gangopadhyay and Biswajit Basu, who are monitoring the job scam probe. They observed during some of the hearings that the CBI investigation lacked pace and direction.
On January 31, justice Gangopadhyay, who ordered the CBI probe in May last year, removed an officer from the special investigation team.
The judge observed that progress in the investigation was very slow and called Somnath Biswas, the officer, “inefficient.”
Biswas will not be involved in any investigation and will not handle any case file, the judge ordered.
CBI officers said Biswas was immediately removed from the investigation.
ALSO READ: Bengal job scam: Mamata urges HC not to cancel appointments
In May 2022, justice Gangopadhyay directed the CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021.
The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5 lakh to ₹15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), conducting a parallel probe, arrested education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee on July 23 last year. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee removed Chatterjee from the government and also suspended him from her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The two judges have often drawn comparisons between the CBI and the ED, saying the latter has performed better.
TMC legislator and former president of the primary education board, Manik Bhattacharya, another suspected key player in the scam, was arrested by the ED on October 11 last year.
Chatterjee, Mukherjee, Bhattacharya and several former officials of the education department have been named in charge sheets by the ED.