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Kolkata, Oct 27 (IANS) A witness in the multi-crore School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam on Monday told a special CBI court in Alipore that appointment letters were hastily issued to select “high-profile” candidates during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Testifying before the court, Rajesh Layek, a former technical officer in the state education department, said that many of the applications were treated as “high-profile cases” and appointment letters had already been issued to those candidates. Leyk said that these letters were prepared during the lockdown period on the instructions of senior officials.
Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, who is currently in judicial custody and undergoing treatment in hospital, participated in the proceedings virtually. Arrested former officers Ashok Kumar Saha, Subiresh Bhattacharya and Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay also attended the online hearing from the Presidency Correctional Home.
Leyk, who is a key CBI witness in the case, told the court that he had prepared the appointment letter on the orders of his superiors. He said that former top officials of the education department, including Shanti Prasad Sinha and Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, called him to their room and instructed him to issue the letter.
The witness also told the court that during that time, in an RTI case, inflated marks of several candidates had come to light and the order to issue appointment letters was given specifically to those whose marks had increased.
The alleged SSC recruitment scam has dominated West Bengal politics for almost three years, with central agencies accusing senior politicians, officials and middlemen of running a huge racket to illegally appoint teachers in exchange for bribes and by manipulating OMR sheets. Those arrested include Partha Chatterjee, TMC MLA Jeevan Krishna Saha and several officials, while both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are continuing parallel investigations.
–IANS
SH/PGH