The West Bengal School Services Commission (SSC) is under investigation by the CBI for alleged irregularities in Group-C and Group-D recruitment. The CBI alleges that Partha Chatterjee, a former education minister, was the “mastermind” of the fraud.
The chargesheet also listed a few individuals who were hired “fraudulently.” The CBI did clarify that the agency was awaiting state government approval before moving further with the accused’s case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had already filed a chargesheet in relation to the scheme against Partha and others.
The Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI investigation into the case, and the CBI has now issued a chargesheet in connection with a FIR that was lodged on May 20 of this year. The chargesheet was submitted by the central agency in accordance with IPC sections 120B, 417, 465, 468, 34, and section 7 of the PC Act of 1988 (as amended by the PC (Amendment) Act 2018). Six of the 16 people listed on the chargesheet have been taken into custody. They are Samarjit Acharya, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, S P Sinha, Ashok Kr Saha, Partha Chatterjee, and Partha Chatterjee.
The CBI asserts that the ten extra people are “unqualified” job seekers who collaborated with the other accused in a “criminal conspiracy” to apply for clerk positions at government-sponsored schools in West Bengal using “fake appointment letters issued on the basis of forged recommendation letters.”
According to the CBI’s chargesheet, Partha Chatterjee, the accused and alleged mastermind of the recruitment scam, “played a dubious role in the appointment of accused Dr. Santi Prasad Sinha as adviser at West Bengal Central School Service Commission in order to ensure that the entire alleged recruitment scam could be effected.”
“Investigation further revealed that pursuant to the aforesaid criminal conspiracy, Partha Chatterjee, without proper justification and against the statutory rule of the SSC, removed Dr Sharmila Mitra from the post of chairperson of West Bengal Central School Service Commission, in order to ensure that the accused Dr. Santi Prasad Sinha could carry out his fraudulent activities in connection with alleged illegalities pertaining to illegal recruitment
at SSC…”