The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now sought the custody of former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, who is already in judicial custody following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam involving the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
The CBI on Thursday made an appeal to a special court of the agency in Kolkata seeking permission to take Chatterjee into custody. The matter will be heard on Friday and Chatterjee will have to be physically present in the court during the hearing.
CBI sources said that except once in the beginning of the investigation, the agency did not get any chance to question Chatterjee. In the meantime, CBI has arrested two top former officials of WBSSC as well as three middlemen in connection with the case.
"One of the three middlemen arrested is also a relative of Partha Chatterjee. During integration, the five persons arrested by our officers revealed a lot of information about the scam, which clearly point at the role of the former Education Minister in the matter. So, it is necessary to take him into custody for questioning," confirmed a CBI official.
On Wednesday, a special ED court had extended the judicial remand of Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee till September 8.
State BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya said that it is high time that Partha Chatterjee, instead of suffering all alone, reveals more truths about the WBSSC scam, including the names of the other beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, the CBI on Thursday conducted raids at six locations of a software firm in Delhi and Kolkata in connection with the teacher recruitment scam.