Big blow to Mamata government in Bengal teacher recruitment scam, High Court canceled the recruitment of 24 thousand school teachers
Mamata Banerjee government of West Bengal has received a big blow from the Calcutta High Court in the teacher recruitment scam case. The High Court has canceled the school teacher recruitment done by the West Bengal School Service Commission panel. The High Court has canceled the entire job panel of 2016 and about 24 thousand jobs were canceled by the High Court. There are allegations of taking bribe of Rs 5 to 15 lakh in this recruitment.
Let us tell you that in the recruitment scam, former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and many Trinamool officials as well as many officials of the State Education Department have gone behind the bars. Following the order of Kolkata High Court, both ED and CBI are investigating the alleged irregularities.
Scam happened in 2014
This scam is from 2014. Then West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) had recruited teachers in government schools in West Bengal. This recruitment process started in 2016. At that time Partha Chatterjee was the Education Minister. Many complaints of irregularities in this matter were filed in the Kolkata High Court.
Candidates who failed in TET exam also got jobs
The petitioners alleged that the candidates whose marks were less were ranked higher in the merit list. Not only this, there were also some complaints in which it was said that some candidates were given jobs even though their names were not in the merit list. The petitioners claimed that jobs were given to some candidates who had not even passed the TET exam. Whereas for teacher recruitment in the state, it is mandatory to pass TET exam. Similarly, complaints were received regarding 13000 recruitment of Group D by SSC in the state in 2016.
While hearing all these petitions, the High Court had ordered a CBI investigation. After this, ED started investigating the money trail in the matter of teacher recruitment and staff recruitment. CBI had also interrogated Partha Chatterjee in this case on May 18.
When ED recovered Rs 21 crore from Arpita Mukherjee’s house
ED had started investigation in this case in May this year. On July 22, 2022, ED had raided 14 places including the premises of Partha Chatterjee. During the raid at Partha Chatterjee’s premises, ED had found documents of Arpita Mukherjee’s property. When Partha Chatterjee was asked about Arpita’s identity, he did not give a satisfactory answer. After this Arpita Mukherjee came on the radar of ED.
When ED raided Arpita’s flat, about Rs 21 crore in cash, foreign currency worth Rs 60 lakh, 20 phones and other documents were found. On July 24, ED arrested Arpita and Parth. Both are currently in ED custody and interrogation is going on. During ED’s interrogation, Arpita had given information about some of her properties.
Arpita is a model. She has been doing small roles in Bengali and Odisha films. Not only this, Arpita has been the brand ambassador of Partha Chatterjee’s Durga Puja. After this, ED raided Arpita’s other places on Wednesday. ED has recovered Rs 27.9 crore cash from Arpita’s house. There were bundles of notes of Rs 2000 and Rs 5000. Apart from this, ED has found gold worth Rs 4.31 crore. This includes 3 gold bricks of 1 kg each, 6 gold bracelets of half a kg each and other jewellery. Not only this, a gold pan was also found from this hideout.
Central agencies are investigating
Following the order passed by the Calcutta High Court, both ED and CBI agencies are investigating the alleged irregularities in teacher recruitment. Prasanna Roy’s name had come up during the investigation, after which in December last year, the Enforcement Directorate had raided the houses and offices of chartered accountants, businessmen and other people in Kolkata in the teacher recruitment scam case.
