Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) president Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment corruption case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
He is the second most important person to be granted bail in the SSC recruitment corruption case after former education minister Partha Chatterjee.
Earlier, Kalyanmoy had been granted bail in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case in the recruitment scam. It is just a matter of time before Gangopadhyay will be released from judicial custody following the high court order.
Kalyanmoy had approached the Calcutta High Court seeking bail in the CBI case. The case was heard by a bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who granted his plea.
The CBI had claimed that Kalyanmoy was involved in the corruption allegations raised in the 2016 SSC recruitment process. In 2012, he became the administrator of the ad hoc committee of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. He remained in that position for a total of four years, until 2016. That same year, he was made the president of the Board of Secondary Education. His term in that position ended on June 22, 2022.
Following the corruption scam, he was arrested by the CBI. Later, the ED also arrested him in a related financial embezzlement case.
Gangopadhyay was also one of the members of the advisory committee formed by the then state education minister Partha Chatterjee. Kalyanmoy was accused of holding onto the post of president of the Board of Secondary Education illegally. The term of that post was extended twice while he was the president of the board.
Initially, the age limit for holding that post was increased from 60 to 65 by the state School Education Department. After that, it was increased from 65 to 68. Kalyanmoy, however, continued to serve the board for another 16 months with the same pay even after reaching 68. Questions were raised about why he was working with additional pay. He was also accused of being involved in the irregularities of the appointment of teachers in state-run school through the SSC panel.
On November 11, Partha Chatterjee was released on bail from judicial custody more than three years after he was arrested by the ED in the SSC recruitment corruption scam. The former state education minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2022 for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore SSC teacher recruitment scam.
On the day of Chatterjee’s arrest in 2022, the ED had unearthed Rs 20 crore in cash from the house of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, who was also arrested in the same case.
The central investigation agency also seized incriminating documents relating to 12 immovable properties linked to his close associates, as well as paperwork related to the appointment of Group D staff in schools.
In September this year, the Calcutta High Court granted bail to Chatterjee, who has been in ED, later in CBI custody, before being sent to judicial custody over the course of the last three years.
Despite the bail order, Chatterjee could not be released immediately due to a Supreme Court directive which said that Chatterjee be released only after the trial court completes the examination of material witnesses within two months.
(IANS)
