THE CBI on Saturday filed a chargesheet in connection with alleged irregularities in Group-C and Group-D recruitment in the West Bengal School Services Commission (SSC) and said that former education minister Partha Chatterjee was the “mastermind” of the scam.
The chargesheet also named some people who got jobs “fraudulently.” However, the CBI added that the agency was awaiting permission from the state government for prosecution of the accused. Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had filed chargesheet against Partha and others in connection with the scam.
The CBI chargesheet has been filed in connection with an FIR registered on May 20 this year after the Calcutta HC ordered a CBI inquiry. The central agency filed the chargesheet under section IPC 120B, 417, 465, 468, 34 and section 7 of PC Act, 1988 (as amended vide PC (Amendment) Act 2018). The chargesheet names 16 people, six of whom have been arrested. They are Partha Chatterjee, S P Sinha, Ashok Kr Saha, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Soumitra Sarkar and Samarjit Acharya.
The CBI said, the 10 other people are “unqualified” candidates who entered into a “criminal conspiracy” with the other accused and joined in the post of clerk at schools affiliated to West Bengal government using “fake appointment letters issued based on forged recommendation letters.”
The CBI has claimed in the chargesheet, “Investigation revealed that the accused, Partha Chatterjee, being the mastermind of this alleged 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…”
The chargesheet reads, “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…”
