For the second day on Tuesday the Calcutta High Court strongly reprimanded the Central Bureau of Investigation for its lackluster handling of the multi-crore cash-for-job cases wondering whether the senior officials were hand-in-glove with the masterminds like Trinamool Congress MLA and former TET chairman Manik Bhattacharya, presently in jail along with former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.
Warning that he would refer the matter to the Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Justice Abhijit Ganguly said that some officials were trying to shield the accused persons by not interrogating them properly and allowing time to lapse in the case.
Expressing “dismay” and “surprise” at the pace and class of inquiry the Judge said that even a rural police station would conduct a better investigation than the CBI officials concerned. He has directed the chief of the SIT Ashwin Senvi to personally remain present before him on the next date of hearing.
Saying that he was “not ready believe” that the CBI officials had done whatever they had done by mistake the Judge said that he firmly believed that the lapses were intentional.
Justice Ganguly was hearing the matter regarding the destruction of OMR sheets --- liable to be preserved by the recruitment board.
Earlier on Monday the Judge asked why the kingpins like “Bhattacharya cannot be interrogated in the correctional home in connection with destruction of the OMR sheets.”
When told that the Supreme Court had directed the CBI to desist from taking strong action against Bhattacharya the Judge said, “But did the Supreme Court prevent you from interrogating him.
Thousands of eligible candidates who had cleared their recruitment exams but failed to get appointment had been holding sit-in demonstrations at Esplanade in central Kolkata for more than two years now.
According to a rough estimate more than 20,000 such candidates --- who had cleared various exams held by the government --- were deprived of their legitimate appointment over 10 years. Instead unscrupulous and undeserving candidates --- many of whom had not even appeared for the exams --- managed to find placement in lieu of cash ranging between Rs 5 and Rs 25 lakhs from primary to higher secondary levels.
In major disappointment to the Mamata Banerjee Government a number of Government functionaries including Ministers, MLAs and senior officials like a sitting Vice Chancellor, SSC and TET chairman and president of the Board of Secondary Education were presently cooling their heels in jail.
Abhishek Banerjee the TMC general secretary and nephew of the Chief Minister too is on the ED radar and has been subjected to intense grilling on two occasions. He has however said that being an opposition leader he was a victim of political vendetta.
The High Court has been questioning both the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI for the level of their sincerity and repeatedly reprimanding their officials for inept investigation.
Meanwhile, the Left once again alleged what they called “setting” between Mamata Banerjee and Narendra Modi. “It clearly appears that the CBI or ED officials could not have been so lax had there not been any backing or instruction from above … there must have been some kind of political settlement at the political level and not at the level of the officials,” CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said.