CBI Searches West Bengal Education Department's Headquarters

The CBI, which is probing the teacher recruitment irregularities in West Bengal, conducted searches at the headquarters of the Education Department near Kolkata on Friday, officials said.

It searched several computers and went through various documents at different offices in Bikash Bhawan in Salt Lake's DF Block, they said.

The agency also sealed a warehouse of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), they added.

It seized multiple documents from the sixth floor of the building where Education Minister Bratya Basu's office is located, officials said.

The CBI team also spoke to some officials during the raid on the sixth floor.

The education minister could not be reached immediately.

The central agency earlier arrested former School Service Commission (SSC) chairman Subiresh Bhattacharya, former WBBSE chairman Kalyanmoy Ganguly and former SSC advisor Shanti Prasad Sinha in connection with illegal appointments of teachers.

Former education minister Partha Chatterjee is also in CBI custody after being arrested by ED in July in connection with the irregularities.

Asked about the searches, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told PTI, "If this is part of the investigation, we have nothing to say. We want the truth to come out." BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, "We only wish the cheated and deprived teaching job qualified candidates to get justice."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)