CBI arrests NBU Vice-Chancellor in SSC scam

Kolkata, Sep 19 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested North Bengal University Vice-Chancellor Subires Bhattacharyya in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam in West Bengal, a source in the federal probe agency said.

“Yes, he has been arrested,” the source told UNI.

Bhattacharya, a former chairperson of the West Bengal School Service Commission, was summoned for interrogation earlier in the day to the CBI office at Nizam Palace as it emerged during the investigation that he had played a role in the scam, the source claimed. He had been quizzed earlier too.

“During the questioning, it was found that he was not cooperating. So, he was arrested,” the source said.

The central agency is likely to come up with more details on Bhattacharya’s arrest shortly.

Bhattacharya came under the CBI scanner last month when the agency sleuths quizzed him for nine hours within the university premises in connection with the scam that involves alleged irregularities in the recruitment relating to Group C and Group D posts and also in appointments of teachers in Class IX and Class X in state-aided schools.

His residences too were later searched. Bhattacharya, the SSC chairperson from 2014-2018, is the first vice-chancellor to be arrested in connection with the scam.

Bhattacharya’s name had also been mentioned in the report of the Justice (retired) R.K. Bag committee that had been tasked to look into the issue by the Calcutta High Court.

The committee had recommended a departmental probe against Bhattacharyya and some others in various posts of the SSC then.

The CBI, which is probing the criminality in the case as per a Calcutta High Court order, last month arrested Santi Prasad Sinha and Ashok Saha who were part of a five-member advisory committee supervising recruitment by the SSC.

In July, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested senior Bengal minister and ruling Trinamool Congress heavyweight Partha Chatterjee and his “close associate – according to the agency – for their alleged involvement in the scam. Chatterjee was the education minister when the purported scam happened.

The ED is tracing the money trail of the alleged scam.

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