Days after the arrests of former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee by the Enforcement Directorate in the teacher recruitment scam, the CBI, on Wednesday, made its first arrest in the case.
Saktipada Sinha, former adviser of the school service commission, and Ashok Saha, its former chairman, have been arrested after hours of interrogation at CGO complex in Kolkata. They were taken for medical test and will be produced before court on Thursday.
Both Sinha and Saha had resigned after the scam broke out, and Calcutta High court ordered probe against them.
Though ED has been unable to book them in connection with the money trail, the CBI booked the duo under Prevention of Corruption Act and criminal conspiracy.
THE WEEK, earlier in the day, reported how ED officers doubted the CBI' claim that the scam involved only Rs 120 crore.
Both Sinha and Saha were signatories in the recruitment documents. They were interrogated for several days last month. There are other members of the committee who are also being interrogated.
The ED summoned Manik Sarkar, TMC MLA and former chairman of Primary School Service Commission for further questioning on Thursday. Manik, who was also interrogated for 11 hours a few days back, skipped the last summons, following which the investigating agency sent an ultimatum to appear before them.
Sources said apart from ED, CBI too has began to expand the scope of investigation to speed things up.
