Determined to make a watertight case in the probe in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has approached the Income Tax department to seek details of the assets and properties held by two ministers, alleged to be involved in the case.
The two ministers are – a former state education minister and current state commerce and industries minister, Trinamul Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee, and West Bengal minister of state for education Paresh Chandra Adhikari. Both Chatterjee and Adhikari have been grilled by the CBI in the recruitment irregularities scam.
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Highly placed sources said once the details from the Income Tax department are available, the CBI will tally the same with the details of the income tax return files of the two ministers as well as the documents about their asset details that they have submitted to the CBI. The CBI has also sought details of the assets and property details of the family members of the two ministers.
At the same time, the CBI sleuths have also sought from the Income Tax department the details of the PAN-registered assets and property details of Trinamul Congress strongman and the party’s Birbhum district president, Anubrata Mandal. He is currently under the central probe agency scanner in two cases of cattle and coal smuggling and post-poll violence in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court’s order for dismissal of Paresh Chandra Adhikari’s daughter, Ankita Adhikari from the services of higher secondary political science teacher in state-run Indira Girls High School at Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar district, has already reached the school authorities. A single-judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay has also directed Ankita Adhikari to return the salary for about 43 months that she had received from the school during her service period.
It has been reported that Ankita got her appointment flouting all norms even though she did not qualify in the merit list and even did not appear for the personality test.
A source in the know said, the CBI sleuths had sought papers on the I-T returns filed by the troika in the last few years.
Meanwhile, the premier probe agency has summoned Chatterjee again at its Nizam Palace office tomorrow in connection with the SSC recruitment scam. Earlier, the former minister had to face a nearly three-and-half hours of quizzing from the sleuths, which the source claimed, to be inconclusive and needed further clarifications from the industries minister.
Earlier, today, Trinamul Congress Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandol, who was summoned by the agency for the third time today in connection with his alleged complicity in the post-poll violence case, skipped the summons on account of his illness.
He had sent a letter through his lawyer to the agency seeking time for 15 days to cooperate in the probe as he was taking rest on the advice of doctors.
Incidentally, he was also summoned in connection with the cattle smuggling case on Friday at Nizam Palace.
