Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday said that its team probing the multi-crore teachers recruitment scam in West Bengal have recovered a huge amount of cash and incriminating documents from the residence of the West Bengal School Service Commission’s former screening committee chief and advisor, S.P. Sinha.
Sinha, perceived to be one of the key conspirators in the multi- crore teachers recruitment irregularity scam, is currently in judicial custody since he was arrested by the CBI sleuths last year in connection with the scam.
Though the CBI statement issued on Wednesday did not name anyone, agency sources confirmed Sinha name. As per the CBI statement, it recovered cash amounting to Rs 50 lakh, 1.4 kg gold, details of property and a list of 1,500 candidates for teachers’ recruitment.
Sinha’s role in the scam was first highlighted in the enquiry report by a Calcutta High Court appointed committee headed by Justice Ranjit Kumar Bag (retired). In that report, which was placed at the High Court, even before CBI started its enquiry in the matter, the said committee identified Sinha as the mastermind in the multi-crore scam.
In the report, the committee also mentioned that then Education Minister Partha Chatterjee illegally constituted a screening committee and had put Sinha at the helm of it. All the irregularities in the recruitment process, according to the report of the said committee, was done through this screening committee.
Chatterjee, also the former Trinamool Congress secretary general and virtually the second man in the party after Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee is also in judicial custody now after his arrest in July last year by the sleuths of Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe in the matter.
(IANS)
