Kolkata, (Asian independent) Former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General, Partha Chatterjee, on Wednesday, underwent a marathon seven-and-half hour grilling by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths relating to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities.
During that marathon interview, what appeared strange for the interrogating officers of the central agency was the asserted ignorance of the minister about the opaque process of publication of the results of the examinations on the website of WBSSC.
Explaining the blemished system of result publication, a senior agency official, on strict condition of anonymity, said that instead of publishing the entire merit list of the written examination, the publication in the website was made in such a way that the candidate concerned could only know his/her marks secured in the written examinations and not the marks of the competitors.
“Had the entire merit list been published, each candidate could also witness the marks of his or her competitor. A section of the erstwhile WBSSC officials exactly took advantage of that and changed the merit list at a later stage. Had the entire merit list been published on the website, the fraudulent officers would not have got the chance of changing the merit list at a later stage,” the agency official said.
However, he added, Chatterjee, who is currently the state Commerce & Industries minister, claimed total ignorance about this opaque process of result publication, just as throughout the marathon interrogation, he constantly claimed that he had no knowledge about the day-to-day functioning of the screening committee which was appointed by him only.
The second point that appeared intriguing for the integrating sleuths was again the ignorance of the minister that after whose instructions the signatures of the Regional Chairpersons of WBSSC were saved in the server of the commission to be used in the recommendation letters at a later stage.
CBI sources said that they will corroborate the statement given by Chatterjee in two phases on May 18 and May 25 and also with the statements given by the erstwhile members of the screening committee. The areas of opacities in the statement would be identified and the follow-up steps would be taken.
