Bengal police have been given a week’s time to hand over the case diary and other evidence in the primary teachers’ recruitment scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A Calcutta High Court division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra issued the order during a hearing on Tuesday.
“He [the officer] will be in trouble with us if he hands half of the evidence lying with him,” the bench observed.
The CBI counsel during the hearing had complained about non-cooperation from the state and also expressed apprehension over attempts to destroy evidence.
Tamluk’s BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay, when he was a judge in the Calcutta High Court, had scrapped around 36,000 jobs in state-aided primary schools over allegations of cash having changed hands to secure the appointments.
In 2014, the primary education board had issued notification for filling up 43,000 vacancies in state-aided primary schools. Around 25 lakh candidates had appeared for the examination and two years later 42, 954 were appointed.
In 2023, a section of the candidates moved the high court alleging those with lower scores were appointed in lieu of cash. Four Trinamool MLAs – Partha Chatterjee (the state education minister when the alleged scam took place), Manik Bhattacharya, Jiban Krishna Saha and Tapas Saha – were arrested in connection with the case.
Last week, a day after the CBI informed the Calcutta High Court that the investigation against the Tehatta MLA Tapas Saha was complete, he passed away after a brain haemorrhage.
In July 2022, Prabir Koyal, a close aide of Saha, is alleged to have collected lump sums against promises of government jobs. The police arrested three persons, including Koyal. During interrogation, Koyal allegedly confessed that he gave Saha a big sum of money.
Saha was accused of having collected Rs 5 crore from people against false promises of jobs. A raid carried out by the CBI at his residence in 2023 had led to the recovery of burnt answer sheets from a pond next to his house.
The case will come up before the high court bench next on June 16.
