Bengal ex-minister's judicial custody extended

A Special CBI Court on Monday extended judicial custody of West Bengal former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee along with ex-officials for 14 days in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) Scam. The former state education minister was produced in the CBI court, Alipore in connection with the case. The court rejected the application for a virtual appearance of Partha Chatterjee and ordered his physical presence. On Monday, the CBI filed a charge sheet against 12 people including the former chairman of West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) Subiresh Bhattachary in connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers. According to CBI officials, the agency, in its charge sheet also named a former assistant secretary of the WBCSSC, an ex-advisor, two former programme officers of the commission, and six others in the charge-sheet submitted before Alipore special judge. The accused in the charge sheet were identified as Santi Prasad Sinha, Ashok Kr Saha, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Parna Bose, Samarjit Acharya, Prasanna Kumar Roy, Pradip Singh, Jnui Das, Md Azad Ali Mirza, Imam Momin, and Rohit Kumar Jha.