According to the sources, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday arrested Jiban Krishna Saha who is an MLA of Trinamool Congress from the Burwan constituency in a West Bengal teacher’s recruitment scam case. CBI officials arrested Saha from his residence at Burwan in Murshidabad district.
It should be noted that Saha had been the subject of CBI officers’ questions since April 14 in connection with alleged illegal hirings in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools. Reportedly, he was taken to the Kolkata office for further investigation into the case.
According to the officials, Saha is the third TMC MLA arrested by CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. On Sunday night in Murshidabad, a mobile phone belonging to the MLA that he purportedly threw away after CBI agents searched his home was discovered in a pond next to his household. Reportedly, the mobile phones are sent to CFSI to retrieve the data. Meanwhile, they are trying to recover other phones as well.
Between 2014 and 2021, when the alleged irregularities in the hiring of teaching and non-teaching staff in state government-sponsored and aided schools occurred, Partha Chatterjee, a former state minister, and another MLA, Manik Bhattacharya, were detained.
Bhattacharya served as the West Bengal Board of Primary Education’s previous president.
The investigating agencies, CBI and Enforcement Directorate are looking into the alleged money trail case after the orders from Calcutta High Court.
Six locations in West Bengal’s Birbhum, Murshidabad, and Kolkata, including the Saha offices, were searched by the CBI last week. Since Friday, CBI agents have been stationed at Saha’s home. Agency representatives have questioned Saha, an MLA from the state’s Burwan constituency, many times during the past three days.
According to the Investigators, on Saturday they had found five bags of incriminating paperwork in the bushes close to the legislator’s house during the search there. The documents include images of potential employees who paid bribes to have employment attached. According to the allegations, the bribes received from the candidates are thought to total several crores of rupees, according to the CBI official.
According to the CBI, Saha served as the primary conduit for the aspirants’ payments to be used to pay for the hiring of instructors for grades 9 and 10. The CBI official said that it was stated that during the first SLST 2016 recruitment process for classes 9 and 10, the accused served as a middleman to extort money from the applicants by promising them jobs in the education department as instructors. Primary and upper teachers’ recruitment records, as well as documents with a list of the candidates and the sums, claimed against them, were among the incriminating materials found during searches.
The agency is looking into the alleged recruitment scam involving Group D personnel in public schools after registering the complaint last April at the request of the Calcutta High Court. The West Bengal School Service Commission’s (SSC) former advisor S P Sinha is also the subject of an investigation into the scandal, which was ordered by the court.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay felt that this case needs to be investigated by CBI by registering a new case as it relates to the appointment of assistant teachers in classes 9 and 10. Justice Gangopadhyay while giving the case to the CBI said, “The CBI is directed to investigate the matter and to interrogate Dr Santi Prasad Sinha, especially and other members of the committee again in this matter given the startling revelation.”
So far, 12 accused, including former education minister Partha Chatterjee and other officials of the State Education Department are in jail for their alleged involvement in the scam. The scam involves providing jobs in state-run schools for personal monetary gains.
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