Bengal school job case: CBI seeks court’s permission for Partha Chatterjee’s fresh interrogation

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday sought permission from a special court in Kolkata for fresh interrogation of former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

While moving this application during a hearing at the special court in the matter, the CBI counsel claimed that the investigation sleuths have got specific information that a special team was constituted by Chatterjee whose task was to destroy and tamper with the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets used in the recruitment examinations for school job.

There was also evidence that forged age proofs were also used in case of certain candidates in the recruitment process, the central agency counsel informed the court. He argued that fresh interrogation of the former education minister might lead to procurement of more clues in the matter.

While coming out of the court, Chatterjee told media persons that he will fully cooperate with the central agency sleuths if he faces fresh interrogation. However, he refused to make any comment when media persons asked him for his remarks on the recent CBI raid at the residences of West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and Trinamool Congress legislator Madan Mitra.

Chatterjee was arrested in July last year by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths in connection with the school job case. His close associate Arpita Mukherjee, from whose residences the central agency sleuths recovered huge cash and gold, was also arrested then. Since then, both have been serving judicial custodies as multiple bail applications by their counsels have been declined repeatedly.

–IANS