WBSSC scam: CBI custody of two ex-officials extended by 2 days

KOLKATA: A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Monday, remanded two former officials of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) arrested in connection with the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam to two more days of CBI custody.

The court ordered that Santi Prasad Sinha, former convenor of WBSSC's screening committee, considered as the epicentre of the scam, and Ashok Saha, former secretary of the commission be presented at the same court again on August 24.

On Monday, the counsel for CBI argued that there is ample evidence in the hands of the CBI sleuths that both Sinha and Saha were directly involved in the multi-crore scam and they need to remain in the central agency custody for some more days for further interrogation.

The CBI counsel said that Sinha made recommendations and supervised the process where names of candidates qualifying in the merit list were removed from the list and replaced by those who did not qualify. The counsel also alleged that Sinha and Saha worked together in implementing such irregularities.

To recall, a Calcutta High Court-appointed judicial committee under the leadership of Justice Ranjit Kumar Bag (retired) was the first body to hold the WBSSC special screening committee and Sinha responsible for playing a key role in the recruitment irregularities process.

The Bag committee also observed that the members of the screening committee were responsible for misappropriating the merit list.

In fact, the judicial committee report was the key factor that prompted Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay to order an enquiry by the CBI in the matter.

Already, former state education minister, Partha Chatterjee and his close aide, Arpita Mukherjee, who were arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths in connection with the same scam are in judicial custody now.