Bengal school jobs case: Fresh questioning of Partha Chatterjee by CBI

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday questioned former West Bengal education minister and ex-Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee in connection with the multi-crore cash-for school jobs case in the eastern state.

The fresh questioning was done following the permission acquired from a special CBI court in Kolkata.

Chatterjee was questioned for about three and half hours at the Presidency Central Correctional Home in south House, where the former minister is currently serving judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the school job case in West Bengal. Sources in the know of things said that the questioning of Chatterjee became necessary after some new clues in connection with case surfaced.

The CBI insiders, however, have remained tight-lipped on the nature of such fresh clues.

They were also tight-lipped on whether Chatterjee had given satisfactory answers during the course of fresh interrogation in the matter.

On October 11, the CBI counsel, while seeking the permission for fresh questioning, told the court that 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 jobs.

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.

On October 11, Chatterjee told newspersons that he will fully cooperate with the CBI officials if he faces fresh questioning.

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.