Bengal school job case: Ineligible candidates became 2-way income source for masterminds

Kolkata, March 7 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths probing the cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal have secured definite clues on how the masterminds made it a two-way source of minting money.

Sources said the first stage of payments made by the ineligible candidates was to ensure that their names featured in the list of candidates selected for appointments. The second stage of payments was made by such ineligible candidates who opted for the choicest postings near their places of residence.

This way, some of these ineligible candidates became a two-way income source for the masterminds of the alleged scam. However, the amount paid for the choicest postings was much less than what was paid for ensuring appointment, and generally, it hovered around 10 per cent of the bribe amount for ensuring the job.

At the same time, sources added, any existing teaching or non-teaching staff posted in schools far away from their residences for quite some time also had to pay an amount for getting transfers to schools near their residences.

This bribe amount varied as it depended upon the proximity of the places of posting to the residences; the closer the places of posting were to the residences, the higher the bribery amounts on this count.

The CBI insiders said the school job case has so many scattered plug points that the investigating officials are having a tough time assembling them in the same place. “That is precisely why the investigation process is taking so much time,” he added.

Sources added that the reports filed by the Central agency had made it clear that while the former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary-General Partha Chatterjee was the “principal active” mastermind in the entire scam pyramid, the other accused, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, was the “principal active” intermediary in the system.

The rest mentioned as accused in the charge sheet by the CBI at the special court in Kolkata were just satellites to Chatterjee and Bhadra.

–IANS

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