Cal HC bars CBI from taking ex-SSC advisor into custody in recruitment scandal

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with an order of a single bench that directed former advisor of West Bengal School Service Commission SP Sinha to appear before CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitment but barred the agency from taking him into custody.

Sinha went to the CBI office at 5.10 pm of Tuesday following the order of the division bench.

Observing that a stay granted to him by another division bench presided by Justice Soumen Sen expired on Monday, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation to hold custodial interrogation of him and directed the officer in-charge of the Survey Park Police Station in Kolkata to ensure presence of Sinha before the agency.

Taking up an appeal by Sinha, the division bench presided by Justice Subrata Talukdar did not interfere with the order of Justice Gangopadhyay that he has to appear before CBI on Tuesday itself, while directing that the agency will not take him into custody.

Justice Gangopadhyay directed Sinha to appear before the central agency for interrogation by 3 pm of Tuesday ''as the stay order he was enjoying till Monday has not been extended by any court of law''.

The division bench presided by Justice Talukdar directed Sinha to appear before CBI within the day.

The division bench headed by Justice Sen had on Friday granted a stay on Justice Gangopadhyay's earlier order for Sinha's appearance before CBI till Monday.

The agency had on Thursday questioned Sinha on an order of the single bench.

Justice Gangopadhyay had on Monday directed four members of a five-man committee constituted by the West Bengal School Education Department in November, 2019 for monitoring pending recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools to appear before CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in the process, in which the court had earlier ordered the central agency to hold the enquiry.

The committee was headed by Sinha and the other four members were S Acharya, PK Bandopadhyay, AK Sarkar and T Panja.

In a separate order, Justice Gangopadhyay noted that CBI has filed a report on Monday's interrogation of the four members of the panel and directed the agency to further question Alok Kumar Sarkar, former deputy director of School Education, as he was the officer in-charge of vacancies in the schools. ''In my view he played an extremely important role in the whole scam as in the whole scam recommendations were made and appointments were given in vacancies, which were beyond the declared vacancy list,'' the court observed.

Directing CBI to thoroughly investigate this aspect, the court ordered Sarkar to reply to all the questions of the agency properly and correctly. ''I direct the CBI to register a case in this matter so that they can take all steps required in this matter,'' Justice Gangopadhyay said in the order. Observing that the money trail, if there is any, is also to be investigated by CBI, the court directed the agency to call 98 people, who have been added as respondents in the matter, in batches to its office.

The judge also said that those 98 people, whose salaries have been stopped by this court as the School Service Commission (SSC) has stated that they did not recommend those persons, are to be interrogated in batches to know whether any exchange of money was there for such illegal appointments, adding that ''CBI will leave no stone unturned for discovering this money trail''.

He further directed that the process must start on Tuesday itself and is to be completed within 30 days.

Justice Gangopadhyay noted that Biswabrata Basu Mallick, the advocate appearing for the state, ''submitted on instruction from the highest authority without naming the authority (the court also did not want to know the name of the said authority) that the government is ready and willing to scrap the illegal appointments of all the persons in different schools in Group-D posts.

''I have made my mind clear by stating that for scrapping the illegal appointments, court's order is not necessary,'' it said.

It further said the state can take steps by following the law and the court's order is not required for it.

A division bench comprising justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samanta on Monday released all matters it was hearing in an appeal challenging orders of the single bench in relation to alleged irregularities in the appointments.

The single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay had on March 30 questioned an order of the division bench in the appeal challenging his direction for submission of an affidavit of assets by Sinha in a petition alleging irregularities in the appointments.

Thereafter, three division benches of the high court refused to hear the appeal on Monday and another division bench on Tuesday did not agree to hear the matter and returned it to the court of the chief justice.