On Wednesday, September 27, the Calcutta High Court directed West Bengal Law Minister Moloy Ghatak to immediately effect the pending transfer of Alipore Special CBI Judge Arpan Chatterjee. The scathing observation was made by a single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay after CBI DIG and SIT head Ashwin Shenvi submitted before the court that SIT members investigating the West Bengal SSC recruitment scam were being sent for inquiry to the Kolkata police by the said judge.
The court was also informed that Alipore Special CBI Judge Arpan Chatterjee, who was hearing the case, had refused to recognize the witnesses in the case as witnesses and had remanded them to judicial custody, where they complained of custodial torture.
Expressing disappointment at the conduct of the special CBI judge, Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay observed, “I am told by the Head of SIT that he is being harassed by Kolkata Police as of now in respect of a complaint made by an accused and subsequent order of Judge, CBI special court. I castigate such an order passed by the said CBI Judge. Such a Judge has no business to send the SIT to Kolkata Police for inquiry. Both the police authorities and such Judges should keep in mind that as this SIT has been constituted by this court, they have no business to send the officers of SIT for inquiry to such police authority. Zero tolerance to corruption should be there in letter and spirit and it should not remain only a slogan in the mouth of the most corrupt persons.”
It may be noted that the submissions were made by CBI DIG and SIT head Ashwin Shenvi when he was asked by the Calcutta High Court to explain why the investigation into the WB SSC recruiting scam was taking so long.
Shenvi responded that the SIT probe was being impeded due to the orders being passed by the Special CBI judge, who was not only sending members of the SIT to the Kolkata Police for inquiry but was also ordering the arrest of people identified by the CBI as witnesses, resulting in vital evidence not being recorded.
After hearing the submissions made by Ashwin Shenvi, the Calcutta HC judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government and directed all authorities under her not to make or entertain any complaint against the head of the SIT or any member of the SIT constituted by this court without the permission of this court.
During the hearing, it was noted that the special CBI judge had a pending transfer order that had not yet been cleared, prompting the bench to inquire as to why the transfer order had not been carried out.
“Whose hand is on the head of the current CBI Judge (acting) for whom no transfer of a new inequivalent has been made?” the HC Judge lambasted the state government, directing it to make sure that the transfer process is completed by October 4, 2023. He added that the CBI judge in question should not be allowed to take up any CBI or ED-related matters till then.
Later that evening, however, West Bengal Law Minister Moloy Ghatak appeared before the Calcutta High Court and stated that due to his ill health, he was unable to clear the transfer of the Special CBI judge in question and that it would be completed by December 6th, 2023.
Calcutta HC cancels recruitment of 36000 teachers in WB over irregularities
It may be recalled that in May this year, the same Calcutta HC bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered the cancellation of jobs of 36,000 illegally appointed untrained primary school teachers in state-run schools over the SSC recruitment scam.
The court cancelled the jobs saying that they were procured illegally adopting unfair means. A total of 42,500 primary teachers were recruited through the recruitment process in 2016 following the 2014 TET. The court found that many of them didn’t clear the TET exam and didn’t undergo training, and therefore the recruitment of 36,000 teachers has been cancelled by the court.
This is the fourth order of sacking of teachers by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay so far. Prior to this, many candidates faced termination of services in the state. However, this is the largest number of job cancellations so far in the teacher recruitment corruption case.
What is the Bengal Teacher SSC recruitment scam?
The West Bengal Teacher’s recruitment scam, more commonly referred to as the SSC scam, looks into the recruitment process conducted through the State Level Selection Test (SLT) conducted by SSC from 2014 to 2016.
The West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) announced in 2014 that teachers would be hired at state-run schools in West Bengal through the State Level Selection Test (SLST), which is when the alleged scam first surfaced. In 2016, the hiring process got underway. At that time, Partha Chatterjee was the Minister-in-Charge of the West Bengal Department of Higher Education and School Education. Nevertheless, a number of complaints were submitted to the Calcutta High Court citing irregularities in the hiring procedure.
The petitioners alleged that many examinees who got lesser marks ranked high on the merit list. Several claims also surfaced regarding the receipt of appointment letters by some applicants who weren’t even on the merit list.
In May this year, the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) filed an FIR against West Bengal Education Minister Paresh Adhikari and his daughter Ankita Adhikari.
In the same month, CBI also quizzed Partha Chatterjee as the alleged recruitment scam had taken place when he was the education minister.
Later, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also joined the CBI to jointly investigate the scam. While the CBI is probing the criminal aspect of the recruitment scam, the ED is investigating the money laundering aspects.
As a part of the inquiry into the money laundering aspect of the SSC recruiting scandal, ED, in July last year, raided Partha Chatterjee’s premises and arrested him for swindling money worth crores in the form of bribes taken during his tenure as the state education minister. Several TMC ministers have since then been arrested for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore scam.
