Calcutta HC asks CBI to form SIT to probe primary teachers' recruitment scam

Kolkata, June 15 Extending its earlier order, the Calcutta High Court's single judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for conducting a probe into the primary teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal.

Justice Gangopadhyay said that members of the SIT should not be assigned to other cases till this probe is completed. The members of the SIT cannot also be transferred before the completion of the probe.

"I expect the CBI will do exemplary work in the probe process. I hope that this investigation does not face the same fate as the Saradha chit fund scam. My only wish is that those deprived because of corruption get proper employment scope," he said.

Meanwhile, the CBI sleuths, on Wednesday afternoon conducted a raid at the office of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) and seized all the documents pertaining to the recruitment.

On June 13 this year, Justice Gangopadhyay while ordering the CBI probe into the primary teachers' recruitment scam, also ordered the immediate cancellation of the appointment of 269 candidates to the post of primary teachers. He observed that these 269 candidates secured jobs despite not qualifying in the written examination and some of them did not even appear for the same.

Recently, Justice Gangopadhyay, who had referred so many cases for a CBI enquiry since November last year, had expressed frustration over the slow progress of the central agency probe in all these cases. He also said that he sometimes wondered whether he made a mistake by ordering so many CBI probes.

The CBI is already conducting a probe into the recruitment irregularities in various teaching and non-teaching posts by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). The CBI sleuths have also questioned former Education Minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee twice in this connection.

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