Bribe-for-jobs: CBI files supplementary charges in four cases
The chargesheets were filed at Kolkata’s Alipore court that rejected Chatterjee’s bail petition on January 3
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed supplementary chargesheets in four separate cases related to the bribe-for-job scam in the West Bengal education department, naming former education minister Partha Chatterjee in all four documents as one of the prime accused, officials of the federal agency said.
The chargesheets were filed at Kolkata’s Alipore court that rejected Chatterjee’s bail petition on January 3.
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.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) started a parallel probe.
The four chargesheets CBI filed on Monday pertained to the appointments of teachers in class 9 and 10 in secondary section, class 11 and 12 in higher secondary section and non-teaching staff of Group C and Group D categories, a CBI official said on condition of anonymity.
Also Read: CBI raids TMC legislator Tapas Saha in bribe-for-jobs case, questions him
Several Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders have been arrested by CBI and ED since 2022.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, has been questioned twice by ED which also questioned Rujira Banerjee, his wife, and summoned his parents between October 6 and 9 last year. The elderly couple had avoided the questioning citing illness.
ED arrested Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee on July 23, 2022.
In its first charge sheet filed on September 19, 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 also suspended him from TMC days after his arrest.
TMC legislator and former president of the state primary education board, Manik Bhattacharya, was arrested by ED on October 11, 2022. He was recently released on bail.
Several former officials of the education department have been arrested and named in charge sheets filed by both agencies.
Reacting to the developments, Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the CBI and ED should focus on the higher end of the TMC hierarchy.
“Chatterjee cannot escape responsibility as he was the education minister till 2022 but we refuse to believe that a scam of this scale was pulled off by him and a few TMC leaders and government officials. The CBI and ED should focus on the higher end of the TMC hierarchy”, Bhattacharya said.
TMC Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen said, “Our party maintains a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to corruption. What amazes me is the fact that CBI has filed chargesheets against Chatterjee while not taking any action against Dilip Ghosh, the former BJP state president. Documents related to a property belonging to Ghosh were found in the flat of Prasanna Roy, a suspected middleman in the scam, during a raid. Roy was arrested and released on bail. Ghosh was never questioned.”
