West Bengal MoS Education Paresh Adhikari reportedly ‘disappeared’ along with his daughter Ankita Adhikari on the night of Wednesday, 18 May as they were headed to Kolkata to be interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over the alleged teacher recruitment ‘scam’.
Adhikari and his daughter had boarded the Sealdah-bound Padatik express from Jalpaiguri junction. He reportedly ‘disappeared’ along the way. If local sources are to be believed, he and his daughter got off at Burdwan.
The CBI has filed an FIR against Adhikari and his daughter in the alleged scam under sections 120B, 420 and Prevention of Corruption Act 7.
Meanwhile, in a setback for the Bengal government, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court upheld the order of the single Judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay which directed the CBI to investigate alleged ‘illegal’ appointments made by the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2016.
The division bench comprised of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Ananda Kumar Mukhopadhyay said “It is apparent that a public scam has taken place involving high-ranking officials of the education department of West Bengal government. The single bench was well within its powers and its order was not prejudiced. Single bench stands justified in its acts.”
The Sequence of Events
In what was a rather happening day for the West Bengal government, cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee was grilled by the CBI for four hours after the Justice Gangopadhyay had directed him to appear before the CBI for interrogation at 6pm.
Chatterjee, who currently holds the Commerce and Industry portfolio, was the education minister during that period.
While Chatterjee subsequently challenged the order before the division bench, it did not accept the matter as the applicant did not have proper documents related to the order.
Other high-ranking officials including Adhikari were directed to visit the CBI state headquarters at Nizam Palace for interrogation by 4 pm on the same day.
The High court has sought a report from the CBI by 2 pm on Thursday.
Simultaneously, WBSSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar resigned on the same day, four months into the job.
Immediately after the resignation, Justice Gangopadhyay directed the CBI to post CRPF officers to secure the SSC office in Salt Lake. The lawyers of the petitioners in the recruitment ‘scam’ told Justice Gangopadhyay that there was an apprehension over evidence being tampered with as the new chairperson takes charge.
Only the CBI commissioner is allowed to enter. The CBI has also asked for CCTV footage of the building.
The WB Government filed an appeal against the order. The division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta who were slated to hear the plea at 1 pm on Thursday, recused themselves from hearing the matter.
It has also been reported that Adhikari’s lawyers have moved the division bench challenging the order for his interrogation.
On 12 April, the single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay held that a committee constituted to oversee the appointment process of recruiting teachers for class 9 and 10, group C and group D staff in government schools in 2016, was illegal. He had directed Chatterjee to appear before the CBI, but Chatterjee got a stay from the division bench.
A total of seven orders directing the CBI to probe the alleged irregularities were passed by the single bench, in this matter, all of which were stayed by the division bench based on appeals.
The single bench had set up an inquiry committee, led by former Calcutta HC judge Ranjit Kumar Bagh to probe into the alleged irregularities, to find massive discrepancies. It was based on these findings that the division bench upheld the direction of the single bench on Wednesday.
What is The Alleged Scam?
The inquiry committee reported at least 609 allegedly illegal recruitments of group-D staff were conducted.
The Print accessed the report and found out that candidates who had been unsuccessful in the recruitment exam can allegedly file an RTI and receive their answer sheets for inspection. They can further get their papers re-evaluated and thereby increase their marks.
However, the School Service Rules have no such provision to increase marks or ranks in that way. This makes the process illegal. But the WBSSC officials told the committee that candidates can seek re-evaluation through an RTI application.
Four unsuccessful candidates moved the High Court by bringing forth the names of 523 candidates who had allegedly been appointed after the expiry of the panel.
In 2021, a single judge bench had ordered a CBI probe into the matter but was stayed by the division bench, which constituted an inquiry committee.
The committee comprising of Justice Ananda Kumar Mukherjee and Justice Subrata Talukdar reported that 381 appointments in group-C were made illegally. The report further said that the five-member panel appointed by the Joint Secretary to the Government of West Bengal in 2019 to oversee the recruitment of approximately 13,000 non-teaching staff (group C and group D) did not have any legal validity.
The report also claims that the ranks of some candidates were changed on 18 June 2019, via RTI applications, and the final panel was uploaded on the website on 20 June 2019, more than a month after the expiry of the recruitment panel. The candidates who were chosen for the investigation by the inquiry committee couldn’t produce a copy of the RTI either.
Candidates who pass the written exam are divided into panels based on district and category, which is valid for one year.
The report also claims that the then WBSSC chairman had asked the chairpersons of the five regional commissions to store their digital signatures on the server.
One of the petitioners, Babita Sarkar filed a case against Adhikari’s daughter Ankita claiming that Ankita’s name is on the merit list despite there being more deserving candidates. For the teacher's recruitment, Sarkar was ranked 20 in the merit list but was later changed to 21 when Adhikari was featured on the list.
She is now a teacher in a government school in Cooch Behar.
Meanwhile, hundreds of unsuccessful students have been protesting under the Gandhi statue in Kolkata demanding jobs in the group-C and group-D department. While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has assured them that action will be taken, they promised to not stop their protest until they get a job.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)