West Bengal SSC scam case: CBI files charge sheet against 12 accused

The CBI filed a charge sheet against 12 people including the former chairman of WBCSSC Subiresh Bhattachary in the connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed a charge sheet against 12 people including the former chairman of West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) Subiresh Bhattachary in the connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers.

According to CBI officials, the agency, in its charge sheet also named a former assistant secretary of the WBCSSC, an ex-advisor, two former programme officers of the commission, and six others in the charge-sheet submitted before Alipore special judge.

The accused in the chargesheet have been identified as Santi Prasad Sinha, Ashok Kr Saha, Kalyanmoy Gangully, Parna Bose, Samarjit Acharya, Prasanna Kumar Roy, Pradip Singh, Jnui Das, Md Azad Ali Mirza, Imam Momin, and Rohit Kumar Jha.

"It was found that the accused, including public servants and private persons, entered into conspiracy with one another in order to extend to unqualified candidates undue appointments to the post of an assistant teacher for Classes IX and X in secondary and higher secondary schools in West Bengal in 2016, after the expiry of that year's panel," a statement from the CBI.

Four charge-sheeted public servants including the former chairman, ex-advisor Santi Prasad Sinha, and then assistant secretary of WBCSSC Ashok Kr Saha, then president of an adhoc committee of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Gangully, and two private persons, are presently in judicial custody, it further read.

"Further investigation is underway to find out if there was a larger conspiracy involved and also the role played by each of the accused," the CBI official said.

Earlier, the central agency had filed against 16 accused including former state minister Partha Chatterjee.

CBI in a statement mentioned that a chargesheet has been filed against 16 accused including the then Advisor at West Bengal Central School Service Commission in a case related to SSC Recruitment before the Special CBI Court in Alipore.

The Calcutta High Court has directed the CBI to look into the alleged irregularities involved in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and -aided schools on recommendations of the commission.

It was alleged that the said accused entered into a conspiracy with one another in order to extend undue advantage in the matter of giving appointments to unqualified candidates to the posts of Group-C staff at various schools through 3rd RLST (NT), 2016, after the expiry of the panel.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is tracking the money trail in the scam.

The ED has so far arrested former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya, former Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his alleged close associate Arpita Mukherjee in the case.