Non-teaching staff recruitment scam: Calcutta HC directs ED to be party in probe

Kolkata, Dec 21 (IANS) A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to be a party in the probe into the recruitment irregularities for non-teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

While passing the order, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said the ED will probe the financial angle of the scam of recruiting Group-D staff for different state-run schools. He also directed the ED to start its investigation on this count with immediate effect.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already probing the Group-D recruitment irregularities by WBSSC.

“Such huge manipulation in the merit list is not possible unless there is the involvement of financial favours,” Gangopadhyay observed.

He also said that the candidates as per the original optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets were shown as securing 43 out of 45 on the commission’s server.

“What was the necessity then of deducting these two marks,” he asked.

Gangopadhyay also directed the WBSSC to publish 100 such OMR sheets on its website by Thursday.

He told the counsel of the petitioner in the matter to review the tampered OMR sheets that have been recovered by the CBI and submit a report to the court at the earliest.

The CBI has agreed to hand over the copies of OMR sheets recovered by its sleuths to the petitioner’s counsel within the next 10 days.

–IANS

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