Bengal municipal job case: Similar question papers were set for different posts

Kolkata: The CBI, which submitted its charge sheet earlier this month in the recruitment scam case in different municipalities in West Bengal, has given a detailed note on how the irregularities started.

Sources said the first doubts surfaced when it was found that identical questions were set for written examinations for different grades of posts. The questions set for Group C and Group D posts were 100 per cent identical, a phenomenon unthinkable in any professional way of holding a recruitment examination.

Secondly, from the pattern of questions, the sources said, it was evident that there was no professional touch by any expert outsourced agency having expertise and experience in setting question papers for competitive examinations.

Investigation through the process of interrogation revealed that instead of hiring the expertise of any specialised agency on this count, the task of setting question papers for different posts was given to the agency owned by private promoter Ayan Sil, a prime accused in both municipalities and school jobs recruitment cases.

Sil is already in judicial custody after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in March last year in connection with his involvement in the school job case.

The link between Sil’s company and the municipalities’ recruitment case was first unearthed by the ED officials last year when they were conducting raid and search operations at his residence in connection with the school job case.

During that raid, the ED officials accessed a 28-page document that revealed the involvement of Sil’s company with the municipalities’ recruitment case. Later, the CBI also started a parallel investigation into the matter. Besides conducting raid and search operations at different places, the CBI officials also interrogated several Trinamool Congress leaders linked to the case.

Investigation revealed that recruitments against cash were done in several municipalities for a variety of posts, which included medical officers, ward masters, clerks, drivers, helpers and cleaning assistants, among others.