Bengal School Job Case: Recommendations Taken via SMS, WhatsApp

KOLKATA:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths probing the cash-for-school job case in West Bengal have secured crucial clues about recommendations for appointments being made not only on paper but also sent via WhatsApp or SMS and were considered by the authorities concerned.

Sources aware of the development said that all these recommendations made in writing or through digital communications, were personally scrutinized and shortlisted by the former state education minister and former Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee.

The details of all such recommendations have been mentioned in the annexures attached with the charge sheet filed by the central agency on this count.

The CBI, through such attachments, has already submitted to the special court in Kolkata a list of 324 candidates who were recommended by different influential individuals, including former and present MLAs and MPs for selections.

In the attachments, CBI has also provided the details of 134 such recommended candidates who secured jobs and are currently employed with different state-run schools in the state.

Sources mentioned that Partha Chatterjee, before shortlisting the candidates, used to have close-door meetings with some of his confidant officers of the state education department.

Sources added that for confidentiality’s sake, such meetings were conducted at his residence and not at his office. Chatterjee, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with the school job case in July 2022, has also been identified as the main brain in the scam in the charge sheet filed by ED.

Besides him, his close associate Arpita Mukherjee and his son-in-law are among the other accused individuals as mentioned in ED’s charge sheet. Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, a trust named after Chatterjee’s deceased wife, is also named in the ED charge sheet as an accused entity. It is alleged that the ill-proceeds were shown as donations to this particular trust and thus diverted.

Chatterjee is currently under treatment at a private hospital in Kolkata following a reported deterioration in his medical condition.

The authorities of the said hospital have recently informed a special court in Kolkata that the former state education minister is almost cured and will be released soon.

Earlier this week, the BJP MP from Purulia constituency in West Bengal, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, wrote to Governor C.V. Ananda Bose and requested him to ensure the safety of Chatterjee.

He alleged a possible life threat for the latter at the private hospital.