WBSSC scam: CBI arrests one more middleman, second since Wednesday

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on late Friday evening, arrested one more middleman in the multi-crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam. The arrested person has been identified as Prasanna Roy.

He is the second middleman in this scam taken to custody by the central agency sleuths since Wednesday. CBI sources said that their sleuths are currently conducting raid and search operations in different places taking Roy along with them. It is learnt that Prasanna Roy will be presented at a special court of CBI in Kolkata on Saturday.

On Thursday, the CBI sleuths arrested one individual Pradip Singh, whose main task was to act as the bridge between the scamsters in WBSSC and the undeserving candidates willing to make payments against teachers' appointments. In face of interrogations, Singh named Prasanna Roy.

CBI sleuths summoned Roy to the agency's Nizam Palace office in central Kolkata on Friday evening and started questioning him. In face of interrogations, sources said, Prasanna Roy started ducking questions and made visible attempts to mislead the interrogating officials. After that the CBI sleuths took him into custody.

This is the sixth arrest and the fourth by CBI in the ongoing probe in the multi- crore teachers' recruitment scam. Earlier, the CBI arrested Santi Prasad Sinha, the former convenor of the WBSSC's screening committee, deemed to be the epicenter of the entire scam and Ashok Saha, the former Secretary of the commission. Both are in CBI custody currently.

Last month, the Enforcement Directorate arrested former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General, Partha Chatterjee and his aide and purported partner in crime, Arpita Mukherjee in the same case. Huge cash and gold recovery was made from two residences of Mukherjee then. Both are in judicial custody now.