A special task force (STF) has been established by the Central Bureau of probe (CBI) to expedite the ongoing probe into the alleged West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam. A superintendent of police (SP), three deputy superintendents of police (DSP), two inspectors, and one sub-inspector (SI) will be among the seven senior officers that make up the special task team. The officers have been called up from New Delhi, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Dhanbad, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar.
According to a senior official of CBI, the team will soon reach Kolkata to probe the alleged scam.
“We need more officers to fast-track the investigation of the Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam.
These officers will be joining as a result of our recent letter to the Delhi headquarters”, said a
senior CBI official.
Between 2014 and 2021, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and Group C and D
non-teaching personnel were given positions, and there were anomalies in the hiring of teachers
in government-run schools. The investigation started and the CBI was instructed to look into it in
May last year. According to allegations, a number of candidates who performed poorly on the
recruitment exams were appointed as teachers in exchange for thousands of rupees, while the
qualified candidates were overlooked.
The TMC leaders allegedly raised more than Rs 100 crore from job seekers between 2014 and
2021 in order to hire them as teachers and employees at government schools in the state,
according to the central investigation agency. While the CBI is investigating alleged irregularities
in the recruiting process, the ED is following the money trail in the scandal.
Partha Chatterjee, a former state education minister, was detained at the Presidency detention
facility in July of last year by the Enforcement Directorate, which was looking into the financial
participation of the SSC recruitment fraud. Several Trinamool Congress leaders and staff from
the education department are also detained for their alleged involvement in the scam.