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Kolkata, Oct 28 (IANS) A heated argument broke out during the hearing of the School Service Commission (SSC) Group C recruitment case in a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Kolkata on Tuesday, leading to chaos inside the court room.
The situation reportedly became tense when an argument broke out between the lawyer representing the accused and the CBI lawyer in the packed court room. Eyewitnesses said the accused’s lawyer allegedly advanced towards the CBI lawyer, forcing him and other representatives of the agency to temporarily leave the Alipore court complex.
According to sources, when the uproar took place, the hearing of the SSC Group C recruitment case was going on. At that time, former technical officer of the Education Department, Rajesh Layek, who is a CBI witness, was being interrogated.
The situation worsened when a verbal altercation broke out between the CBI special public prosecutor and the lawyer of former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) chairman Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay. The debate in front of the presiding judge became heated, due to which the proceedings had to be adjourned for a while.
It may be recalled that during the period when allegations of corruption in the SSC recruitment process had surfaced, Rajesh Layek had served as the Technical Officer responsible for issuing appointment letters to the selected candidates.
On Tuesday, when CBI lawyers were questioning Leyk, Gangopadhyay’s lawyer raised counter questions, leading to a heated exchange between the two sides. The verbal altercation soon turned into a ruckus and as the lawyers for the accused aggressively moved towards the CBI, the agency’s special counsel walked out of the courtroom.
The court was forced to stop the proceedings for some time. A section of senior lawyers present described the incident in the courtroom as “unprecedented”. Later, after the situation came under control, the government lawyer returned and the hearing started again.
On Monday, CBI witness Rajesh Layek had told the court that during the Covid-19 lockdown, appointment letters were hastily issued to several high-profile candidates as part of the alleged SSC recruitment scam.
Leyk said some candidates’ applications were classified as “high-profile cases”, leading to appointment letters being issued during the lockdown period, bypassing normal procedures.
The teacher recruitment scam has rocked the politics of West Bengal for the last three years. Several prominent personalities, including former education minister Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha and several senior officials of the education department, have been arrested by central probe agencies for their alleged involvement in large-scale corruption and manipulation of OMR sheets to get teaching jobs in exchange for money.
Both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are separately investigating the multi-crore recruitment scam that has rocked the state’s education system.
–IANS
SH/PGH