Charges were framed against 21 people, including former education minister Partha Chatterjee, on Thursday in an Alipore court in connection with alleged corruption in the recruitment of teachers and school staff.

Besides Chatterjee, charges were also framed against former minister Paresh Chandra Adhikari and his daughter, Ankita.

Allegations had surfaced that many whose names did not appear on the school service commission’s merit list were appointed based on fake recommendation letters.

The CBI has submitted four chargesheets in connection with this case.

On Thursday, Chatterjee’s lawyer submitted petitions for exemption, requesting that his client be absolved of the charges brought against him.

“My client is innocent. The SSC is an autonomous body. They did the recruitment by themselves. My client had no role to play,” Chatterjee’s lawyer said.

The father and daughter also sought exemption from the case, saying Anita’s recruitment was based on her merit and not any irregular practice.

She was sacked from her job following a court order.

The charge framing process was concluded at the Special CBI court in Alipore.

The others accused in this case include former state secondary education board president Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay; former SSC chairman Subires Bhattacharyya; former head of the SSC advisory committee Shanti Prasad Sinha; former SSC secretary Ashok Saha; and former SSC staff Samarjit Acharya and Parna Basu.

Niladri Das and Pankaj Bansal, both associates of NYSA, a private agency outsourced by the commission to supply and preserve optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets used for the written examination for recruitment, were also named as accused.

The accused have been charged under various sections, including criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence, giving false information to screen an offender, cheating, dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery, and using forged documents as genuine.

Chatterjee has also been charged under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Chatterjee has been booked in multiple cases started by the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI in connection with the alleged recruitment irregularities and has been granted bail in a few of them.

However, there are several pending cases against him. He has been in custody since his arrest over three years ago.