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Abhishek Banerjee’s name is also in the teacher recruitment scam case of West Bengal. Banerjee was summoned by the CBI on May 20 in connection with the investigation of the case. He was interrogated for 9 hours.
The ED probing the Bengal teacher recruitment scam arrested Sujay Krishna Bhadra late on Tuesday night. Sujay is considered very close to TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.
Last week, Bhadra appeared before ED officials after being served a notice by the central probe agency. He has appeared before the CBI several times before. CBI is also probing this recruitment scam.
On May 20, CBI called Abhishek for questioning. Coming out, he said that it was a waste of time.
Abhishek Banerjee’s name also in the scam
Abhishek Banerjee’s name is also in the teacher recruitment scam case of West Bengal. Banerjee was summoned by the CBI on May 20 in connection with the investigation of the case. He was interrogated for 9 hours. However, Banerjee later moved the Supreme Court and in her petition appealed to the SC to direct that the agency not take any coercive steps against her.
On 26 May, the Supreme Court refused to grant relief to Banerjee. The SC refused to stay the ED and CBI probe in the case. At the same time, the Calcutta High Court’s decision to impose a fine of 25 lakhs was stayed. The Calcutta High Court had on May 18 allowed the investigating agencies to interrogate Banerjee.
A vacation bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and PS Narasimha said they would hear the matter after the vacations. He has fixed the date of July 10 for the hearing.
Read step by step what has happened so far in the teacher recruitment scam…
1. Teacher recruitment scam happened in 2014
This scam happened in Bengal is of 2014. Then the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) took out the recruitment of teachers in government schools. The process started in 2016. Partha Chatterjee was the education minister at that time. Several complaints of irregularities in this matter were filed in the Calcutta High Court.
The petitioners alleged that the candidates whose marks were less were placed at the top of the merit list. Some candidates were given jobs even though their names were not there in the merit list. Such people were also given jobs, who did not even pass the TET exam.
2. In May last year, the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to investigate
In May 2022, the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to investigate all the appointments made by the West Bengal School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education to non-teaching staff and teaching staff between 2014 and 2021. Go There were reports that candidates had paid bribes ranging from Rs 5 to 15 lakhs for selection after failing in the selection test.
This scam took place when Partha Chatterjee was the education minister. In July 2022, ED arrested Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee. After the arrest, Mamata Banerjee removed Chatterjee from the post and also dismissed him from the party.
Partha Chatterjee (left) was the education minister when the teacher recruitment scam took place. Arpita is said to be very close to Parth.
3. In September 2022, CBI filed the first charge sheet in the case
The CBI had presented the first charge sheet on September 30 last year. It contained the names of 16 people including former education minister Partha Chatterjee. Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee were then under the custody of ED. Parth is in jail since 23 July 2022, his bail pleas have been rejected. TMC MLA and former chairman of the State Primary Education Board Manik Bhattacharya was arrested by the ED on October 11.
In July, ED raided Arpita’s house for two days. Crores of rupees in cash and jewelry were found from there. A machine had to be called to count the cash.
The first raid was conducted at Arpita’s house on 23 July and the second on 28 July. ED’s action lasted for 26 hours on the first day and 18 hours on the second day.
4. In March 2023, ED told – this scam is worth more than Rs 350 crore
In March this year, the ED arrested TMC youth wing leader Shantanu Banerjee from Hooghly. The ED, while presenting him in a special court on March 13, had told that the teacher recruitment scam currently appears to be worth Rs 350 crore, but it could be much bigger than this.
At the same time, during interrogation, Banerjee had said that the mastermind of this entire scam is Kuntal Ghosh, another arrested youth wing leader of TMC. He is trying to divert people’s attention from this whole matter, so that he can transfer his money to other states.
The picture is of Kuntal Ghosh, who was arrested by ED in teacher recruitment scam. The court had also given the custody of Ghosh to the ED. Kuntal had alleged that the agency was pressurizing him to name Abhishek Banerjee.
5. The Calcutta High Court stayed the order canceling the recruitment of teachers
On 12 May 2023, Justice Abhijeet Ganguly of the single bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered the cancellation of the recruitment of 32 thousand teachers. Justice Ganguly had directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to organize a fresh recruitment process within three months. He said that the interview and aptitude test of the candidates should be taken and its videography should be done. On 19 May 2023, the Calcutta High Court stayed this order.