Sinha was untraceable before he arrived at the CBI office in Kolkata around 11:15 pm on Thursday and was questioned till around 2:25 am on Friday
KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has questioned West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC)’s former advisor SP Sinha in connection with an alleged recruitment scam.
The questioning followed Calcutta high court’s direction to the CBI on Thursday interrogate Sinha by midnight. Sinha was untraceable before he arrived at the CBI office in Kolkata around 11:15 pm and was questioned till around 2:25 am on Friday.
WBSSC conducted examinations, interviews and set up a panel after the state government recommended appointments of around 13,000 non-teaching staff in state-aided schools in 2016. It was later alleged the commission made around 500 irregular recruitments after the panel’s expiry.
Sinha said he cooperated with the investigators and answered all their questions.
The court earlier called Sinha one of the “kingpins of the alleged corruption” related to illegal appointments. “In such circumstances, a thorough probe is required to bust the racket of…illegal appointments,” said a single-judge bench’s order. “The CBI is directed to initiate the said interrogation in course of the day…by 12 midnight today.”
The single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay earlier twice ordered the CBI to probe the alleged recruitment scam. A division bench quashed the first order while the second was stayed. It set up a committee headed by former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh to probe the irregularities.
“It appeared that on the basis of some recommendation from outside the office of the commission at the instance of Sinha, the recommendation letters were printed by the Programme Officer wherein the signatures of the Chairman of the Commission were mechanically printed. The Chairman was kept in the dark,” the court said.
