Bengal Education Scam: CBI Makes First Arrests, 2 Officials In Custody

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday made its first arrests in the West Bengal teacher’s recruitment scam case. The investigating agency arrested Shanti Prasad Sinha, former advisor of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) and former chairman of SSC, Ashok Saha, in connection with the case, India Today reported.

According to a statement by the CBI, the two violated the provisions of the SSC rules and collected the vacancies of Group C staff in an unauthorised manner and issued recommendations for unsuccessful candidates for those vacancies. They forged the signatures of the chairpersons of the regional commission to issue these recommendations.

Appointment letters were then issued on the basis of these recommendations, bypassing the normal chain hierarchy and without posting the selected candidates’ names on the website, the report added.

“Thus, the deserving genuine candidates were debarred from getting the regular salaried jobs,” said the CBI.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sent a notice to TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya in connection with the case. He was asked to appear before the investigating officer at the ED office in Kolkata next week.

The ED had earlier recovered some important documents in a raid conducted on his residence. He was then summoned by the probe agency for questioning. Manik Bhattacharya had already appeared at the ED office twice.