What is the West Bengal Teachers SSC recruitment scam and how it was unearthed

The recruitment scam started in 2014 when the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) issued a notification for the appointment of teachers in state-run schools in West Bengal through the State Level Selection Test (SLST). The recruitment process initiated in 2016 under Partha Chatterjee, Minister of Higher Education and School Education Department in West Bengal. 

The scam was unearthed after a series of petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging irregularities in the recruitment process. The petitioners alleged that many teachers who got less marks ranked high on the merit list while some applicants, who weren’t even on the merit list, received appointment letters.

Another case related to the scam started when the Mamata government in 2016 issued a notification to the School Service Commission (SSC) for the recruitment of 13,000 Group D staff in government-run or aided schools. The tenure of the panel responsible for this recruitment expired in 2019, but numerous petitions alleged that despite expiration of the panel’s tenure almost 25 persons were appointed by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. While during a hearing on the case, petitioners alleged that not just 25 but over 500 people were appointed after the expired SSC panel and they were now drawing salaries from the Bengal government.

India Today reported that the appointment of 269 primary school teachers in Bengal government sponsored and aided schools were also termed illegal, after petitioners alleged that these candidates did not qualify for the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).

The report further claimed, “Some of the failed and ineligible candidates of TET 2014 got appointments as Assistant teachers in primary schools. Many ineligible candidates who had submitted blank exam papers only mentioning their personal details got appointments as Assistant Teachers.”

The Calcutta High Court bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered a CBI probe in the matter. The HC directed TMC leader and Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the CBI for questioning in the case. Presently, the scam is being jointly investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The criminal angle of the alleged recruitment scam is being investigated by the CBI and the ED is probing the money laundering part of it.

Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in connection with the WB Teachers SSC scam on July 23. The ED has found a huge cache of unaccounted cash of approximately Rs 21.2 crore from the apartment of Chatterjee’s ‘close aide’, 27-year-old model-actress Arpita Mukherjee. The bundles of 2,000 and 500 rupee notes are suspected to be the profits of sale of teaching posts for government schools.

During the concurrent raids in 13 places by the ED throughout the state including the residence of former West Bengal Education Minister and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee’s house, sleuths have recovered cash worth Rs 21.20 crore, foreign currencies worth around Rs 60 lakhs, gold ornaments worth around Rs 90 lakhs, 20 Apple iPhones, sale deeds of eight flats and documents of multiple high-end passenger vehicles.

The most important asset recovered from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee was two mysterious diaries, which include one black executive diary and one pocket diary. On the black executive diary, it was written “Department of Education- Government of West Bengal”. Both the diaries are full of coded messages, which the ED sleuths are trying to decode with the help of experts. ED sources confirmed that the handwriting in both the diaries do not match with that of Minister or his aide Arpita, which cast the doubt of the existence of a third person in the picture.

After the interrogation of Arpita Mukherjee, the ED officials got the name of another woman involved in the case. Another close associate of education minister Partha Chatterjee, Monalisa Das, who is the head of the department of Bengali at state-run Kazi Nazrul University in Asansol in Burdwan district.

ED says that her elevation to the post of the head of the department is questionable as to accommodate her for that position Das was promoted from the post of assistant professor to associate professor directly, which is not possible without the nod of the Minister. The agency has searched 10 flats which are registered in the name of Das and most of these flats are located in Bolpur-Santiniketan in Birbhum district and the overall value of these flats do not match the declared income of Das.

The investigation also revealed three bogus companies with Arpita Mukherjee as director. These companies and the ED sleuths suspect that these companies were used as a medium to route the collections from the recruitment scam to different channels.

The ED is now trying to figure out the exactly property owned by the former state education minister as well as to category-wise segregate the properties under heads of directly owned by him, jointly held with close aides.

After the arrest TMC has now sacked Partha Chatterjee from all the party posts and the cabinet. West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee herself had made it clear that the onus of the entire development is on Chatterjee and not on the party or the state government.

WB CM Mamata said, “I have removed Partha Chatterjee as a minister. My party takes strict action. There are many planning behind it but I don’t want to go into details, I will be in charge of the three departments held by Chatterjee till the time a fresh arrangement is reached.” – INDIA NEWS STREAM