Kolkata: West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Tuesday sanctioned prosecution against former state cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee in the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam under Central Bureau of Investigation, Raj Bhawan sources said.
The constitutional chief of the state gave this order on Tuesday night. Following this, there is no legal hurdle for the central intelligence agency to frame charges against Partha Chatterjee.
It may be noted that when Partha Chatterjee was arrested, he was serving as the education minister of West Bengal. According to rules, the permission of the Governor or the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is required to initiate the trial proceedings against him.
Chatterjee is now lodged at the Alipore Correctional Facility. A charge-sheet was filed against the former minister of industry. Therefore, the Governor's permission is required to initiate the trial process in this case. In such a situation, the Governor granted the permission as per his constitutional right according to Article 163 of the Indian Constitution.
At the same time, sources said that the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly can also give the go-ahead. Speaker Biman Banerjee has already confirmed that no permission was not sought from him.
On July 23, 2022, the then Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested from his residence in the teacher recruitment scam. Enforcement Directorate (ED) also raided the house of his close associate Arpita Mukhopadhyay and recovered Rs 22 crore. Later, a sum of Rs 27 crore was recovered from Arpita's Belgharia flat. The properties jointly held in the name of both Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee were confiscated.
Later, the ED presented the charge-sheet in the special CBI court in Alipore. In this case, permission was not sought from the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Biman Banerjee to start the trial. The permission was sought directly from Governor CV Ananda Bose.
