Indian Lawmaker Arrested in West Bengal State Over Alleged Teachers' Recruitment Scam

India’s top investigative agencies are examining the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and staff in government-run and aided schools in West Bengal. The rules governing the recruitment of teachers through a state-level selection test was issued in 2014, but the process didn't begin until 2016.

India’s economic intelligence and law enforcement agency on Tuesday arrested West Bengal-ruling Trinamool Congress' legislator Manik Bhattacharya in connection with a case pertaining to an alleged scam over the recruitment of teachers in the state.

Bhattacharya is the second Trinamool Congress politician to be arrested in the case: in July, a former minister in the West Bengal State Government, Partha Chatterjee, was arrested after a vast amount of cash was recovered from properties linked to his close aide Arpita Mukherjee.

As a result, he was sacked from his ministerial portfolio and suspended from the party after his name appeared in the probe. According to the enforcement directorate, his WhatsApp chat history had a conversation about Bhattacharya’s involvement in collecting bribes from teachers who wished to be recruited.

Teachers' Recruitment Scam

The case dates back to 2014 when notification to appoint teachers and staff for government-run and aided schools was issued. The appointment was to be made on the basis of a state-level selection test (SLST).

Recruitment began in 2016 but soon after the process began petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging that many examinees who got poor marks nevertheless ranked high in the merit list. There were also allegations that some applicants who weren’t even on the merit list, received appointment letters.

In another case related to the appointment of staff, a notification to the School Service Commission (SSC) was issued by the state government in 2016 to recruit 13,000 Group D staff in the state's government-run and aided schools.

Again in this case, petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging that recruitment was done despite the fact that the tenure of the panel responsible for recruitment expired in 2019.

The Calcutta High Court in June this year ruled that a high-powered supervisory committee, approved by Chatterjee, was the root of the alleged scam and ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the recruitment process.

Since then, the CBI and the enforcement directorate have been conducting an investigation into the alleged scam. The CBI is examining the criminal side and the ED is investigating the money-laundering side.