Over 8K manipulations detected in SSC office system, devices, Calcutta HC told – Hindustan Times

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam, has come across over 8,000 manipulations in hard disks and a computer in the commission’s office to recruit undeserving candidates, the Calcutta high court was informed last month.

The manipulations helped to increase the scores of candidates who had little chances of clearing the recruitment exams, it added.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government schools between 2014 and 2021. The CBI is probing the matter on the directions of the high court.

Former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide, Arpita Mukherjee, were earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is holding a parallel probe in the case. Chatterjee was the state education minister from 2014 to 2021. The duo are currently in custody.

The CBI made the above submissions in four reports in sealed envelopes in the court in the last week of September, according to a senior agency official who did not wish to be named. The court opened two of the reports on September 28.

In its report, the CBI said it came across at least 8,163 manipulations after analysing hard disks and the computer server at the commission’s office. Three hard disks and a motherboard were recovered from the office of an agency in Delhi which was reportedly hired by SSC for the scam, the official said.

A total of 23,449 candidates were recruited as teachers for classes nine to 12 and as group-C (non-teaching) and group-D (non-teaching) staff in state-run schools since 2014. As many as 3,481 manipulations were detected in group-C recruitment, 2,823 in group-D recruitment, 907 in recruitment of teachers for classes XI and XII and 952 in recruitment of teachers for classes IX and X.

During the course of investigation, it was also found that several candidates had either submitted blank OMR (special types of sheets on which candidates need to completely fill the bubbles or put a checkmark in boxes to mark the answer of different question) sheets or answered a maximum of six to seven out of more than 50 questions.

“While several candidates had submitted blank OMR sheets, by just filling their names and roll numbers, others answered around six to seven questions,” the official said.

The manipulations in the hard disks, motherboard and server of the computer in the office helped to increase the scores of such candidates, the official added.

The high court directed the CBI to probe the case on March 31. The CBI registered its case on May 20 and on September 30, filed its charge sheet against 16 people, including Chatterjee, five former top officials of the SSC and 10 candidates.

The ED, which is conducting a probe into alleged money laundering, filed its charge sheet against Chatterjee and Mukherjee on September 19.

Chatterjee was arrested on July 23 after 27 hours of interrogation in the case, in which the ED has thus far recovered cash worth around ₹50 crore. Mukherjee, from whose flat the cash was seized during a raid on the same day, was also arrested as a prime suspect.

Both Chatterjee and Mukherjee have denied having any links to the cash recovered during the course of the probe.

Sudipta Dasgupta, an advocate in the high court and counsel for one of the petitioners in the case, said several recruited candidates appeared to have scored the same marks in the exam.

“What had caught our attention was that several candidates who were recruited obtained the same marks. They got 53 out of 55. Later, the CBI probe revealed that many of them had submitted blank OMR sheets which were later manipulated,” he said.