CBI officers investigating the state teacher recruitment scam on Monday questioned two former chairmen of the School Service Commission (SSC), Chittaranjan Mandol and Pradip Kumar Sur along with four other officials relating to the role played by former SSC chairman Subiresh Bhattacharya in the the alleged irregularities in recruitment of teaches in govt-aided schools. Subiresh Bhattacharya is currently in CBI custody following a recent order by the CBI special court, but according to the agency, is not cooperating and refusing to answer questions.
According to sources, the questioning of the two former chairmen of the SSC related to their removal from their posts, which the Central agency claim, was not in accordance with the procedures mandated for the SSC. The other four officials of the SSC who were summoned today had worked under Subiresh Bhattacharya and carried out his orders from to time.
They were questioned in the presence of Bhattacharya, who was reported to be reticent on most of the questions he had been asked, in a bid to only to elicit information from them and cross-check his statements recorded earlier. According to the agency, Bhattacharya’s alleged complicity was also established in Group C recruitment anomalies for which it got his custody to question him further.
Bhattacharya, whose tenure in the capacity of SSC chairman lasted from January 2014 till July 2018, was preceded by Pradip Kumar Sur and Chittaranjan Mandol, in the post. Sur held the post between October 2013 and January 2014 and Mandol’s tenure as SSC chairman spanned June 2011 and October 2013.