Bengal school job case: CBI moves court seeking permission for confidential deposition of ineligible teachers

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal has now approached a court in Kolkata seeking permission to record confidential deposition of four ineligible teachers who secured jobs after paying money.

In the initial stage, the central agency sleuths want to begin the process through of four such individuals who are currently employed with different state-run schools in the state.

Once the CBI receives the court permission, its sleuths will immediately record the confidential deposition and based on the contents of their statements they will decide whether to record similar depositions from others.

Sources said that the confidential deposition will be mainly regarding the process that these candidates had to go through to pay cash to get the job; besides the names of the individuals they paid the money to.

The central agency sleuths will also question the individuals about the middlemen through whom they paid the cash and what the mode of communication between them was.

On August 7 , the CBI arrested four ineligible teachers who got teaching jobs by paying hefty cash.

More such teachers from different districts of West Bengal were also questioned by the CBI.

That was the first ever crackdown by the central agency sleuths on the “supply side” of the corruption in the case, while all the previous actions were all on the “demand side”.

The judge of the special PMLA court in Kolkata observed that those “paying cash” are equal offenders like those “receiving cash” and hence should receive equal punishment.