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regular-article-logo Thursday, 25 April 2024

Give up job, HC tells minister's daughter

Paresh Adhikary's daughter Ankita was a beneficiary in illegal appointments to government-aided schools, allegedly at the behest of School Service Commission

Our Bureau, PTI Calcutta Published 20.05.22, 01:38 PM
Paresh Adhikary

Paresh Adhikary File Picture

Calcutta High Court on Friday dismissed the employment of West Bengal Minister of State for Education Paresh Chandra Adhikari's daughter in a government-aided school and asked her to return the salary she had drawn during her tenure as a teacher.

Ankita had got the job after the merit list was manipulated, allegedly at the behest of the School Service Commission.

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According to anandabazar.com, HC has also asked her not to enter the school she was employed with adding that she henceforth would no longer be able to introduce herself as a teacher.

The single bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay directed Ankita Adhikary to deposit the salary paid to her since November 2018 in two instalments with the registrar.

The high court was hearing a petition filed by a candidate who claimed that she was deprived of the position despite having secured higher marks than Adhikari's daughter in the recruitment examination.

Earlier in the day, the minister reached the CBI office here for interrogation over his daughter's alleged illegal appointment. The central agency had on Thursday filed an FIR against Adhikary after he failed to meet the deadline set by the high court for appearance before its sleuths in connection with the case.

Adhikary, along with his daughter, was booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), besides sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

They are subjects of the agency’s probe into hundreds of allegedly illegal recruitments made to government-aided schools on the recommendations of the School Service Commission (SSC). Adhikary, Ankita and “other unknown public servants of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission and other related departments of the Government of West Bengal and private persons” have been charged under penal sections relating to cheating and criminal conspiracy as well as under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly demanding and accepting bribes, CBI officers said.

Adhikary came to the CBI office around 10.30 AM on Friday.

The high court was hearing a petition filed by a candidate who claimed that she was deprived of the position despite having secured higher marks than Adhikary's daughter in the recruitment examination.

The court had on Thursday directed Adhikary to appear before the CBI by 3 PM, but his lawyer submitted that he was in Coochbehar in north Bengal and would travel to Kolkata by air in the evening. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay then asked the Bidhannagar police to take him to the CBI office as soon as he lands at the NSC Bose Airport here.

The court also said that if Adhikary was found missing on the flight, it would be treated as a hoax created by him to escape the court and the CBI and, in that case, the matter would be dealt with accordingly.

It had earlier ordered the minister to appear before the CBI on May 17. The TMC leader, however, skipped appearance on Wednesday, and also failed to meet the 3 PM deadline set by the court on Thursday.

He had mailed the CBI seeking more time to appear before it for questioning.

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