Kolkata: The CBI lodged an FIR against five people and “other unknown” officers of the West Bengal School Service Commission in the course of its investigation into “massive irregularities” in state school appointments. The move came a day after an FIR was filed against junior education minister Paresh Adhikary.
The agency slapped charges of forgery and cheating on SSC’s former adviser Santi Prasad Sinha, former chairman Soumitra Sarkar, ex-secretary Asoke Kumar Saha and programme officer Samarjit Acharya. CBI also named former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education president Kalyanmoy Ganguly in the FIR.
A separate probe was initiated into alleged irregularities in Group C appointments of state-aided schools. The agency had with it the report of the inquiry committee led by retired high court judge Ranjit Kumar Bag. The report said as many as 222 candidates of the total 381, appointed as teachers after the expiry of the SSC panel on May 18, 2019, didn’t qualify in the written test and were not called for the personality test and interview.
Meanwhile, CBI questioned Adhikary for four hours at Nizam Palace, the third day in a row, to trace the “invisible hand” that facilitated his daughter Ankita’s appointment as a teacher in a state-run school. The investigating agency might summon the minister again.
During questioning, officers asked him to come clean on how Ankita made her way to the State Level Selection Test (SLST) waiting list after two years without appearing for the personality test.
