CBI arrests ex-president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education in recruitment scam

The CBI on Thursday arrested Kalyanmoy Gangully, a former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, in connection with the Group-C recruitment scam case in government schools, officials said.

Gangully was called for questioning at the agency's Kolkata office and taken into custody after he was found non-cooperative, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered the case on May 20 against five accused, including Gangully, the officials said.

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It is alleged that the accused extended undue advantage to undeserving and unlisted candidates to the posts of Group-C staff in various schools across West Bengal in a criminal conspiracy with each other.

"The aforesaid persons collected the vacancies of Group-C in an unauthorised manner after the expiry of the panel on May 18, 2019 in violation of provisions of School Service Commission Rules, 2009," the FIR alleged.

The officials said the accused issued recommendations of unsuccessful candidates to those vacancies by issuing fictitious memos of regional commissions and using scanned signatures of the chairpersons of such commissions without their knowledge.

"On the basis of these recommendations, appointment letters were issued, bypassing the normal chain of hierarchy and without sending those recommendation letters to the appointments section of the Board of Secondary Education, West Bengal and without notifying the names of the candidates on the website of the Central Commission for verification of testimonials and collection of appointment letters on the notified date," the FIR alleged.

The federal probe agency alleged that deserving candidates were debarred from getting regular salaried jobs even after the expiry of the panel.

The constitution of the supervisory committee was approved by the then minister in-charge, school education department, Partha Chatterjee to supervise, monitor and guide the Central Commission with regard to the pending recruitment process.

The CBI has alleged that the constitution of this committee was a violation of the School Service Commission Act, 1997.

The agency has alleged that Gangully gave instructions to a technical officer of the board to prepare appointment letters on the basis of the fake recommendation letters, bypassing the normal chain of hierarchy and without sending those recommendation letters to the appointments section of the board.