Former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) and Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya has been asked to appear in front of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the teacher recruitment scam case in West Bengal. The direction was passed by a Single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, September 27, and Bhattacharya has been ordered to be present before CBI officials in Kolkata by 8 pm tonight.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay passed this order on a petition alleging tampering and destruction of optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in the examinations for recruitment of primary teachers in West Bengal in 2014, reported IANS. In fact, the judge also gave liberty to the CBI to arrest Bhattacharya if he does not cooperate with the investigation.

The petition filed in this case claims that a total of 20.90 lakh candidates appeared for the written examination for primary teachers' recruitment in West Bengal in 2014. Out of these, as many as 12 lakh OMR sheets were tampered with and destroyed, which caused irregularities in the recruitment process. Justice Gangopadhyay's Bench observed that CBI should conduct a probe on why and how those OMR sheets were destroyed and, for that purpose, the questioning of Bhattacharya was extremely important.

On September 2, the Calcutta High Court's Division Bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Lapita Bandopadhyay upheld an order on June 16 this year by the same court's Single-judge Bench of Justice Gangopadhyay directing a CBI probe in the matter and removal of Bhattacharya from the chair of WBBPE President. Although on September 23, Manik Bhattacharya approached the Supreme Court challenging the September 2 order of the Division Bench, he is yet to get a shield from the Apex Court of the country in the matter.