Kolkata, March 23 () Former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee, on Thursday, made an explosive allegation that a number of CPI(M) and BJP leaders asked him for favours in the recruitment when he was a minister.
He especially named the current leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, BJP’s national vice-president and Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh, and CPI(M) central committee member and former leader of legislative party in Assembly, Sujan Chakraborty.
“Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh and Sujan Chakraborty are making tall allegations about the teacher’s recruitment scam. They should look at themselves. They asked me for favours in recruitment. I refused and clearly told them I will not be able to render any help on this count since I did not have any recruitment authority. Then they approached other people also,” Chatterjee said.
He said this when he was brought on Thursday morning to a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for hearing in the multi-crore scam on recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools.
Commenting on Chatterjee’s allegations, Trinamool Congress’s state general secretary and party spokesman in West Bengal, Kunal Ghosh said that since the former state education minister had made these allegations the central agencies should take the three named in custody and question them together with Partha Chatterjee.
Dilip Ghosh rubbished the allegations and said, “Actually, he got habituated with a luxury life though ill-gotten wealth and enjoying the company of multiple girlfriends. Now being behind the bars for so many days he is completely out of mind.”
Sujan Chakraborty claimed that this was a deliberate ploy to divert attention from the main issue and falsely involved his name. “However, this game will not work out,” he said.
Till the report was filed there was no comment from Suvendu Adhikari on this count.
Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 23, 2022, and has been in jail since then.
src/dpb