CBI quizzes North Bengal University chief in school recruitment case

Sources said the investigators wanted to know from the former SSC chairman the procedures followed in the recruitment process

A 12-member CBI team reached the office of the VC in the afternoon after realising that Bhattacharyya was not at his official residence.: Representational picture

KINSUK BASU , MONALISA CHAUDHURI | TT  |  25.08.22  :The CBI on Wednesday questioned Subires Bhattacharyya, vice-chancellor of North Bengal University, at his office in Siliguri and also visited his apartment in Kolkata’s Brahmapur in connection with its probe into the alleged irregularities in recruitments in government-aided schools.

Bhattacharyya is a former chairman of the West Bengal School Service Commission. He was the principal-in-charge of Fakir Chand College in Diamond Harbour when he joined the commission as chairman in January 2014.

He resigned from the chairman’s post and took over as VC of North Bengal University (NBU) in February 2018.

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Sources in the central investigating agency said its officers wanted to know from the former SSC chairman the procedures that were followed in the recruitment process. 

A 12-member CBI team reached the office of the VC in the afternoon after realising that Bhattacharyya was not at his official residence.

“It is important to know how candidates were ranked on the basis of their performance, what were the criteria for selection and what was the process of rejecting candidates from the list of successful ones,” said a CBI officer.

Bhattacharya was questioned in Siliguri on a day a CBI court in Kolkata sent S.P. Sinha, former chief adviser to the commission, and Ashok Kumar Saha, former secretary of the commission, to jail custody.

The CBI arrested the two on August 10 for their alleged involvement in the recruitment scam. Sinha and Saha feature on the list that was drawn up by a committee headed by former Calcutta High Court judge Ranjit Kumar Bag, which probed the alleged irregularities in recruitments.

Bhattacharyya features on the list of those against whom the panel has recommended action for the alleged corruption.

A CBI team also turned up at Bhattacharyya’s Brahmapur apartment in Bansdroni in the morning but found it locked. The team left after sealing the flat and a store room on the terrace. 

Arrest

The CBI on Wednesday said it had arrested a man named Pradip Singh in connection with the school recruitment scam.

Officers said Singh had been collecting money from candidates to give them teaching jobs.