Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has formed a special task force (STF) to speed up the ongoing investigation into the alleged West Bengal teachers' recruitment scam case. The special task force will comprise seven senior officers including an Superintendent of Police (SP), three Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSPs), two inspectors and one Sub-Inspector (SI). The officers have been inducted from New Delhi, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Dhanbad, Bhopal and Bhubaneswar.
According to a senior official of CBI, the team will soon reach Kolkata and begin the probe into the alleged scam. "With there being developments in the teachers' recruitment scam in Bengal almost daily we need more officers to deal with that. We had written to the Delhi headquarters recently and these officers will be joining the probe," said a senior CBI official.
West Bengal teachers' recruitment scam
The scam relates to the irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in government run schools as well as providing jobs to the Group C and D non-teaching staff and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021. The probe was initiated after the CBI was directed in May last year to investigate it. It is alleged that several people who fared poorly in the recruitment examinations were hired as teachers in exchange for lakhs of rupees while the eligible candidates were overlooked.
According to the central probe agency, more than Rs 100 crore was allegedly raised by TMC leaders from job aspirants to employ them as teachers and staff at government schools in the state between 2014 and 2021. The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam, while the CBI is looking into the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment.
Former state education minister Partha Chatterjee, who was arrested in July last year by Enforcement Directorate probing the money trail in the SSC recruitment scam for his alleged involvement in it, is currently in jail custody at the Presidency correctional home.
Several officers of the education department and a couple of ruling Trinamool Congress leaders are also in custody for their alleged involvement in the scam.
(With PTI inputs)
