Teachers scam: CBI summons Trinamool leader for questioning

KOLKATA: The CBI has summoned Trinamool Congress's block president from Bhangar in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, Sajahan Molla for questioning in connection with the multi-crore scam in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in the state-run schools.

Molla, known to be an extremely close confidante of former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee, on Friday morning reached CBI's Nizam Palace office in central Kolkata. Chatterjee is currently in judicial custody because of his alleged involvement in the recruitment scam.

Sources said that a number of close family members of Molla are currently employed in different state-run schools in West Bengal and majority of them got the jobs during the period when Chatterjee was the state education minister. The central agency sleuths intend to question him on this count.

Besides Chatterjee, Molla is known to be a close confidante of the erstwhile screen committee head of West Bengal School Service Commission, S.P. Sinha, who is also in judicial custody now in the same charges.

Molla is considered to be a heavyweight Trinamool Congress district-level leader in South 24 Parganas. Besides being the block president of the party in Bhangar, he is also the president of the Trinamool Congress-run Bhangar-1 panchayat samiti.

In February this year, the CBI sleuths escorted by the central armed forces personnel twice conducted raid and search operations at his residence. His son was also interrogated by the central agency sleuths then.