Bengal SSC scam: CBI approaches I-T for details on assets of 2 ministers

In the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam, the CBI approached the Income Tax department to seek details of the assets and properties held by two ministers

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.

These two ministers are -- a former state education minister and current state commerce & industries minister, Trinamool 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.

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 Trinamool 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 & 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 Adhikari 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.

--IANS

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