Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sources have disclosed that former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee used a strategy of frequent transfers and reshuffling of officials within the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to facilitate large-scale irregularities in teacher recruitment.
The WBSSC is responsible for recruiting teaching staff for secondary and higher secondary schools, as well as non-teaching staff in Group-C and Group-D roles in state-run schools. Earlier this year, citing widespread irregularities, the Supreme Court invalidated the entire 2012 WBSSC panel, which included 25,753 recruits.
According to CBI findings, Chatterjee used a multi-layered system of staff deployment to ensure the smooth execution of the illegal recruitment while avoiding suspicion. Investigators allege that he first created a core team of loyal senior officials to oversee the manipulation. This team reportedly included former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education president Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, former WBSSC chairman Subiresh Bhattacharya, screening committee head SP Sinha, ex-WBSSC secretary Ashok Saha, and staff members Samarjit Acharya and Parna Basu. Many of these individuals have already been charged in connection with the scam.
At the operational level, junior officials tasked with data manipulation were frequently replaced. This deliberate rotation, according to sources, ensured that no single official had comprehensive knowledge of the irregularities. “Chatterjee was once considered a skilled human resources manager before entering politics,” said a CBI insider. “Ironically, he appears to have used that expertise to design an illegal system that prevented the early detection of the scam.”
Partha Chatterjee has been in custody longer than anyone else charged in the WBSSC recruitment case. He was first arrested in July 2022 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel investigation. The CBI also later took him into custody. Although Chatterjee has recently been granted bail in most cases filed by both the CBI and ED, he remains in judicial custody due to separate cases related to irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers under the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).
Also read: CBI court grants bail to ex-WB Min Partha Chatterjee in SSC scam
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