Kolkata: The CBI has roped in Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the investigation of the ongoing West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) scam.
The ED will now run a parallel inquiry but only in the financial aspect of the scam. Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) sources told IANS that the decision to rope in ED was taken since the latter has better expertise to track the money trail involved in the scam.
“Tracking the money trail will give crucial clues relating to the scam and we do not want further delay in it. Our senior officers had been holding dialogues with their counterparts in ED for the last few days and finally the latter has agreed to take up the financial angle probe in the scam,” a CBI official here said on condition of anonymity.
It is learnt that CBI will shortly handover to ED certain documents like the bank accounts statements, property details and income & expenditure details of those under radar of the central probe agency in this matter. The ED will specially examine the transactions involving huge amounts to track the money trail and have a clear idea about who actually was or were financially benefited as a result of the scam.
On April 13, 2022, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court gave a four-week breather to the former state education minister, Partha Chatterjee (currently the state commerce and industries minister, from facing the CBI questioning on this scam.
CBI sources said that before actually getting the chance to grill Chatterjee, also the Trinamool Congress secretary general, CBI wants to have a clear idea of the financial angle of the scam and that is where the role of ED is so important. Recently, a Calcutta High Court- appointed probe panel headed by retired Justice Ranjit Kumar Bag submitted a report at the court declaring the Chatterjee- appointed recruitment committee of WBSSC as illegal.
The CBI sleuths probing the matter have already integrated the former advisor of the said recruitment committee S.P. Sinha and four other members of the committee more than once in the matter. The CBI sources said that there were lots of inconsistencies in the statements given by them.
