English
Kolkata: On July 23 (Saturday), West Bengal Commerce and Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee as well as his close aide Arpita Mukherjee from their residences in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board recruitment scam. The arrests were made after Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided Chatterjee’s along with Paresh Adhikari and several others’ residences and recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee.
The said amount is suspected to be the proceeds of the crime of said SSC scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines. A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which are being ascertained, said the probe agency.
Rs 20 crore cash seized by ED from the premises of an aide of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee after the agency conducted raids on Friday. (PTI Photo)
Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam. As per reports, the investigation agency has also recovered multiple WBSSC documents and admit cards of several students from Mukherjee’s apartment and Chatterjee’s residence during the raids, while several property-related documents have been found from Chatterjee’s residence as well.
The alleged scam dates back to 2014 when the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) issued a notification for the appointment of teachers in state-run schools in West Bengal through the State Level Selection Test (SLST). The recruitment process began in 2016 when Partha Chatterjee was the Minister-in-Charge of the Higher Education and School Education Department in West Bengal. However, a series of petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging anomalies in the recruitment process.
The petitioners alleged that many examinees who got less marks ranked high on the merit list. And, there were several allegations that some applicants, who weren’t even on the merit list, received appointment letters.
Further, in a second but related case, the Bengal government in 2016 issued a notification to the School Service Commission (SSC) for the recruitment of 13,000 Group D staff in government-run or aided schools. The tenure of the panel responsible for said recruitment expired in 2019, but several petitions alleged that recruitment had taken place despite the expiration of the panel’s tenure and as many as 25 persons were allegedly appointed by the WBBSE.
However, during a hearing on the case, petitioners claimed that not just 25 but over 500 people were appointed after the SSC panel expired, and they were now drawing salaries from the state government.
Soon a CBI probe was launched in the case following an order by the Calcutta High Court bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay. As per a report in India Today, the appointment of 269 primary school teachers in Bengal government-sponsored and -aided schools were also termed illegal, after petitioners alleged that these candidates did not qualify for the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).
The report added, “It is further alleged some of the TETs fail and/or ineligible candidates of TET 2014 got appointments as Assistant teachers in primary schools. A number of ineligible candidates who did not answer the question by answering the MCQ and submitted blank exam papers only mentioning their personal details got appointments as Assistant Teachers.”
Bengal industries and commerce minister Partha Chatterjee became involved in the scam when he held the education portfolio. Justice Gangopadhyay directed him to appear before the CBI for questioning.
At present, the scam is being jointly investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). While the CBI is probing the criminal aspect of the alleged recruitment scam, the ED is investigating the money laundering aspects.
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