Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the high court on Monday rebuked the CBI counsel and the agency’s officers for not submitting any report on their interrogation of arrested MLA Manik Bhattacharya in jail on how he allegedly destroyed OMR sheets used in teacher recruitment tests.
The judge wondered whether the agency was in cahoots with Bhattacharya, a former president of the state primary education board, and rebuked them for “producing nothing” in the court.
Around 11.30am on Monday, Justice Gangopadhyay called the CBI counsel and asked him to inform his client to come to the court with the documents related to the destruction of OMR sheets of candidates who had appeared in the 2014 TET (teachers’ eligibility test).
In response, CBI officers reached the court with a fresh list of suspects and said the agency suspected that many others, including elected representatives, could be involved in the alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers.
The names were not divulged in the court.
Justice Gangopadhyay, while reading the list, ironically said: “Arrey ey to dekhchhi sab mahapurush (Oh! What I can see is all great people).”
The judge asked the CBI counsel whether these “mahapurush” had been interrogated.
The lawyer said some had been interrogated. Justice Gangopadhyay expressed his annoyance and asked when the rest would be questioned.
“Will it (interrogation) be after the announcement of the Parliament elections?” he wondered.
The judge said: “All these thieves will contest the polls again. They are waiting for my retirement. The general public have started thinking that nothing will come up in the investigation.”
He said the court had decided to monitor the investigation. But the CBI investigators have been showing the court “kanchkola”, which signifies “nothing”.
Justice Gangopadhyay said: “This court had asked the CBI to go to jail and interrogate Manik Bhattacharya about how he had destroyed the OMR sheets. It had also ordered videography of the said interrogation. No report has been submitted before the court yet. Why?”
The court then appeared to question the intentions of the probe agency and asked: “Is there any alliance between the CBI and Manik Bhattacharya? Why is the investigating agency not trying to vacate the order of the Supreme Court restraining the investigators from seeking Bhattacharya’s custody again for interrogation?”
The CBI counsel remained silent.
The judge asked the CBI officers to attend his court again on Tuesday with the documents related to the destruction of the OMR sheets.
