West Bengal: CBI arrests TMC MLA Jiban Krishna Saha in connection with teacher recruitment scam

Kolkata: CBI arrested another Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha in connection to the recruitment scam in West Bengal.

After being produced to Alipore Session court, the court gave four days CBI custody to Saha.

Saha dumped his phones during investigation

During the searches, Saha had allegedly dumped two of his cell phones in the pond behind his house, but CBI recovered one of them and sent it to CFSl to retrieve the data. The agency is trying to recover the other phone.

The alleged scam and Saha’s role

CBI has alleged that Saha was the main conduit who collected money from aspiring candidates by promising them jobs as teachers in the education department's recruitment process for classes 9 and 10. The agency has recovered several incriminating materials during the searches, including documents containing the list of candidates and amounts mentioned against them.

Investigation and court’s directions

The case was registered by the CBI last year on the directions of the Calcutta High Court, which had ordered an investigation into the alleged recruitment scam involving Group D staff in government schools. The court had directed a probe into the scam, in which the role of the former advisor of West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC), S P Sinha, is also being looked into.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered the CBI to investigate the matter and to interrogate Dr Santi Prasad Sinha and other members of the committee again in this matter. He observed that the matter needs to be investigated by CBI by registering a new case as it relates to the appointment of assistant teachers in classes 9 and 10.