Bengal school job case: OMR sheets destroyed on Partha Chatterjee’s instructions, CBI tells court

IANS, Kolkata, March 27, 2025 :  The optical marks recognition (OMR) sheets used in examinations for recruitment of teachers in state-run schools were destroyed on the instructions of the former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee with the clear intention to hide evidence in the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a special court in Kolkata in Thursday.

Opposing the bail plea by Chatterjee’s counsel on behalf of his client, the CBI counsel informed the court that even the former officer-on-special-duty (OSD) of the former state Education Minister has revealed a lot of things in his “confidential statement”.

The CBI counsel also argued that since the entire scam was conducted under the direct supervision of the former minister, the investigation process might be hampered in case bail is granted to him.

On Thursday, the CBI counsel also informed the court that recently, the investigating officials procured the names of 321 candidates whose names were recommended to Chatterjee by some other politically influential people in the state.

The investigating officials are currently probing whether these names were recommended against payment of money, and for that purpose, in the next stage of the investigation, the influential persons recommending these candidates will also be interrogated.

The lists of these 321 candidates, along with the names of the influential persons recommending them, were recovered by the investigating officials from the warehouse of Bikash Bhavan, the state Education Department headquarters at Salt Lake in northern Kolkata.

In his argument, Chatterjee's counsel pleaded for bail for his client on medical grounds. “He is 73 years old and suffering from multiple medical complications. So, considering that, he should be granted bail,” Chatterjee's counsel argued.

He also pointed out that of the total of 11 persons named in the charge sheet filed by the CBI, eight have already been granted bail.

Last month, the CBI claimed that their investigating officials secured specific clues where not just written recommendations but also those made through WhatsApp or phone text messages were also considered for appointments by the authorities concerned, and those recommendations, either made in writing or through digital communications, were personally scrutinised by Chatterjee.