Four teachers who allegedly got jobs using unfair means were on Monday, August 7, 2023, arrested in the West Bengal school job scam. During the day the four teachers appeared before a Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court at Alipore after summons were issued to them. Judge Arpan Chattopadhyay observed that the teachers who paid money to get jobs are also guilty of the scam and refused to grant them bail.
The CBI, which is probing the West Bengal school job scam had named the four teachers as witness in a charge sheet filed before the Court. All the teachers – Zahiruddin Sheikh, Saigal Hossain, Simar Hossain and Saigal Mondal- who were sent to Presidency Correctional Home later on Monday evening hail from Murshidabad district. The teachers have been in service for about six years.
The development has sent shock waves across the State as thousands of teachers have been allegedly identified through various orders of the Calcutta High Court who allegedly got their jobs using unfair means. The West Bengal school job scam came to the fore with the arrest of former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in July 2022. Mr. Chatterjee was arrested after crores of rupees were recovered from the house of his associate Arpita Banerjee. The investigation agencies CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have over the past one year arrested about a dozen people including former officials of the State government, MLAs of Trinamool Congress and agents who collected money from the district.
During the day Mr. Chatterjee was produced before a city court and he pleaded for bail saying that he was not the appointing authority. The former Minister said that he was in charge of five departments and he should be granted bail since he has spent a year behind the bars.
