Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Oct 20: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition filed by TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya challenging the ED’s (Enforcement Directorate) detention of him in relation to suspected irregularities in West Bengal’s hiring of elementary school teachers.
Justices Aniruddha Bose and Vikram Nath’s bench rejected Bhattacharya’s appeal and refused to interfere with the ED’s detention.
Following a night of questioning in relation to the alleged anomalies in the recruitment of elementary teachers, the ED had detained Bhattacharya on October 11. The West Bengal Board of Primary Education’s previous chairman, Bhattacharya, was detained for reportedly refusing to cooperate with the probe.
He represents the Nadia district’s Palashipara Assembly constituency.
On October 18, the top court gave the CBI permission to continue looking into suspected irregularities in the hiring of primary teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided institutions.
The argument made by Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, who was speaking on behalf of the CBI, was accepted. Raju said that the agency is investigating a recruitment scam of unusual scope and that the preliminary findings indicate that money was exchanged for making appointments.
The Calcutta High Court’s directive to void the appointments of 269 candidates for teachers had also been stayed by the Supreme Court. It instructed all 269 of these people to provide affidavits in support of their appointments to the aforementioned positions, and it requested that the appointing authority investigate the validity of the appointments.
