Bengal school recruitment case: CBI questions teachers recruited illegally

CBI sleuths probing the multi-crore teacher's recruitment case have finally started questioning those teachers who were allegedly recruited

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths probing the multi-crore teacher’s recruitment case have finally started questioning those teachers who were allegedly recruited in different state-run schools against payment of money.

Sources said that the questioning process started on Friday, is continuing on Sunday and will be continued for the next few days. Sources said those individuals who are being questioned are those who are currently employed in different schools despite not qualifying in the teachers eligibility test (TET) as per records accessed by the CBI sleuths.

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Recently, the central agencies probing the case have faced the ire of the courts at different levels including the Calcutta High Court and special courts of CBI and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for going soft on those candidates who secured jobs against payment of money.

Sources said that a number of those who have been questioned in the matter so far have claimed that they contacted the recruitment authorities through the middlemen in the respective districts.

Last year on July 23, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths arrested former state education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee for their alleged involvement in the school recruitment case after the central agency sleuths recovered huge cash from the twin residences of Mukherjee.

Both of them are currently serving judicial custody with all attempts on parts of their counsel to get them released on bail proving futile. Besides Chatterjee, two other MLAs of ruling Trinamool Congress namely Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are also currently serving judicial custody. Bhattacharya is also the former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).