Bengal school jobs case: CBI gets info about 35 new collection agents
Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the multi-crore cash-for-school jobs case in West Bengal has got information about 35 new middlemen-cum-collection agents who acted as intermediaries between the benefactors and beneficiaries in the alleged scam.
Sources said that during the last couple of months, the CBI sleuths have interrogated around 2,300 individuals accused of getting school jobs against payment of hefty sums.
During the interrogation, sources added, the names of these 35 agents surfaced, who played crucial roles in making contacts between the candidate and top officials of different organizations attached to the state education department, fixing the amounts to be paid for the job, collection of money from the candidates and handing it over to the main brains of the scam and ensuring the appointment of those who paid.
The CBI officials, sources said, also cross-checked the antecedents of these middlemen and found that many of them were highly influential in their districts in terms of political contacts.
The sleuths are considering summoning these 35 agents, questioning them and having a clear idea of their godfathers in the alleged scam.
Recently the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case, identified 222 individuals from an expired panel who were recommended for teaching jobs in state-run schools in West Bengal. Of these 222 individuals, 183 were secondary school teachers and 38 were higher secondary teachers.
The ED has identified that most of these 222 individuals were recommended for appointment by SP Sinha, who was heading the screening committee of the West Bengal School Service Commission at that time.
The screening committee was constituted by the commission during the tenure of Partha Chatterjee as the education minister. He is currently behind bars because of his alleged involvement in the school job case.