CBI submits final chargesheet in Bengal primary teachers' recruitment case; names of 3 new accused included

Kolkata, Oct 3 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday submitted its final chargesheet in the case related to the irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers in West Bengal government schools, and included three more names there as accused.

This is the fifth supplementary chargesheet filed by the CBI in the matter, and an agency insider said that this is also the final chargesheet.

The first of the three new names included in the final chargesheet is that of Trinamool Congress legislator from Nakashipara Assembly constituency in Nadia district, Manik Bhattacharya, who is the former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).

The second name is that of Ratna Bagchi, who was a WBBPE employee, while Bhattacharya was the president of the Board.

The third name included in the final chargesheet is that of Bivas Adhikari, whom the central investigation agency has identified as a middleman in the recruitment scam.

As per the final chargesheet of the CBI, Adhikari was the president of an association of private Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) and Diploma in Elementary Education (DLED) colleges in Birbhum district, and he used that chair to push candidates for appointment as primary teachers in different state-run schools against hefty payments.

Bhattacharya and Bagchi have been integrated in the past by the officials of both CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe in the matter.

In fact, former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee was arrested for the first time by ED officials in July 2022 in the primary teachers’ recruitment case. Later, the CBI had also shown him as arrested in the matter.

At the same time Chatterjee was also shown as accused by both the CBI and ED in the cases of recruitment of secondary and higher secondary teachers and the recruitment of non-teaching staff in Group-C and Group-D categories in state-run schools, the recruitments for which are conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

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