Non-teaching staff job scam: HC directs ED to be party in probe
The Single Bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court, while hearing a petition of one Lakshmi Tunga relating to alleged irregularities in the GroupD recruitment, read out the directive asking ED to join the probe forthwith along with the CBI.
Statesman News Service | Kolkata | December 22, 2022 1:15 pm
Calcutta High Court today ordered the Enforcement Directorate ( ED) to probe the illegal transactions of money involved in the irregularities in the recruitment of nonteaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). The Single Bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court, while hearing a petition of one Lakshmi Tunga relating to alleged irregularities in the GroupD recruitment, read out the directive asking ED to join the probe forthwith along with the CBI. Justice Gangopadhyay observe that there must be hefty transactions involved in manipulating OMR marksheets and the ED should be made a party to the probe to unearth the transactions.
The CBI, which is already probing the Group-D recruitment irregularities by WBSSC, had earlier tracked a large number of optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in the WBSSC-conducted written examinations for Group D- staff that was tampered with to accommodate ineligible candidates depriving the eligible ones. According to sources, when CBI officials examined the OMR sheets, they would that as per the actual answer sheets, many of them secured zero but the marks for all of them were increased to 43 at a later stage.
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During the hearing, Justice Gangopadhyay, upon finding out that Subiresh Bhattachaya, currently under probe for his role in the multicrore teacher recruitment scam, was the chairman of the WBSSC when the alleged manipulation took place, asked the CBI counsel whether Bhattacharya had told everything to the CBI? On whose instruction was this done, he asked.
At this point, Justice Gangopadhyay observed that it was hard to believe that without transaction of a hefty amount this kind of manipulation was not possible. Meanwhile, in another development, the High court today rejected the bail petition of Subiresh Bhattachrya in connection with his complicity in institutionalizing the alleged fraud in an organised way in recruitment of teachers in govt-aided schools.
During the searches, unaccounted cash amounting to Rs. 1.39 crore, along with various incriminating documents in respect of foreign investment received by the alleged private company have been recovered and seized, the agency said.
Bikash Mishra, an accused in the coal scam in Raniganj Coalfields area, who had been arrested earlier both by the CBI and the ED was arrested by Kalighat Police Station today allegedly on charges of molesting his niece.