Bengal SSC scam case: CBI files charge sheet against 12 accused including WBCSSC ex-chairman

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged 12 people on Monday, including former West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) chairman Subiresh Bhattachary, in connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers. According to CBI officials, the agency named a former assistant secretary of the WBCSSC, an ex-adviser, two former commission programme officers, and six others in its charge sheet submitted before Alipore special judge.

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 are among those named in the chargesheet. According to the CBI, “it was discovered that the accused, including public servants and private individuals, conspired 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.”

Four charge-sheeted public servants, including the former chairman, ex-adviser Santi Prasad Sinha, and then assistant secretary of WBCSSC Ashok Kr Saha, the former president of an adhoc committee of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Gangully, and two private individuals, are currently in judicial custody, according to the statement. “Further investigation is underway to determine whether there was a larger conspiracy involved, as well as the role of each of the accused,” a CBI official said.

The central agency had previously filed charges against 16 people, including former state minister Partha Chatterjee. The CBI stated in a statement that a chargesheet had been filed against 16 accused, including the then-Adviser at the West Bengal Central School Service Commission, in a case involving SSC Recruitment before the Special CBI Court in Alipore.

The Calcutta High Court has directed the CBI to investigate alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff, as well as teachers in government-sponsored and -aided schools, based on the commission’s recommendations. It was alleged that the accused conspired with one another in order to gain an unfair advantage in the matter of appointing unqualified candidates to the posts of Group-C staff at various schools via the 3rd RLST (NT), 2016, after the panel had expired.

The money trail in the scam is being followed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In the case, the ED has so far arrested former West Bengal Board of Primary Education chairman and Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya, former Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, and his alleged close associate Arpita Mukherjee.