CBI arrests two in Bengal school jobs scam

Kolkata: The CBI on Wednesday arrested two former officials of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) for their alleged involvement in the “irregularities” in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government-sponsored and -aided schools, an official said.

These are the first arrests made by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the school jobs scam, he added.

Former advisor of the SSC, Dr. Shanti Prasad Sinha, and its ex-secretary Ashok Kumar Saha were arrested by the agency on Wednesday evening after a day-long grilling.

“Both were non-cooperative and tried to mislead our detectives during the questioning. As they were hiding information, we decided to arrest them and interrogate them in our custody,” the officer told PTI.

After their arrests, they were taken to the SSKM Hospital for medical check-ups, and then to the agency’s office.

The duo will be produced before a court on Thursday.

The CBI has registered FIRs under non-bailable sections of the IPC against Sinha, Saha, and three other officers – Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Soumitra Sarkar, and Samarjit Acharya in the alleged scam.

In the FIR, the central probe agency alleged that the SSC advisory panel was formed on the insistence of the then education minister Partha Chatterjee who was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Department (ED) which is tracking the money trail in the scam.

Partha Chatterjee’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee was also arrested by the ED in this connection.