The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed its first chargesheet against 16 accused, including former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, before a special CBI court in Alipore in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission’s Group-C recruitment scam case, said agency sources.
The accused have been chargesheeted under sections 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly uses document as genuine), 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act., said CBI sources.
Out of the 16 accused, ten are those who were illegally appointed, including then WBSSC advisor Shanti Prasad Sinha, said sources.
The accused named in the chargesheet include Shanti Prasad Sinha, then minister in charge of the Department of School Education Partha Chatterjee, then WBSSC programme officer Samarjit Acharya, then WBSSC chairman Prof Saumitra Sarkar, then WBSSC assistant secretary Ashok Kumar Saha and then president of Adhoc Committee of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Dr Kalyanmoy Ganguly; besides, Dipankar Ghosh, Subrata Khan, Akshay Moni, Samaresh Mondal, Soumya Kanti Middya, Avijit Dalai, Sukanta Malik, Idrish Ali Molla, Ajit Bar and Forid Hossain Laskar — all illegally appointed candidates, said CBI sources.
The case was registered following the order of the Calcutta High Court, and it was alleged that the 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 in 2016 after the expiry of the panel, said sources.
Santi Prasad Sinha, Ashok Kumar Saha, Dr Kalyanmoy Gangully and Dr Partha Chatterjee are currently in judicial custody.
“Further investigation with regards to a larger conspiracy and the role of other persons is continuing,” said CBI officials.
The alleged irregularities took place when Chatterjee was the education minister.
Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the last week of July when he was the state’s industry and commerce minister. Following the arrest, he was stripped of his portfolios. The ruling Trinamool Congress also suspended him.
The CBI had arrested Sinha in August.