Kolkata, Feb 2 (IANS): A judge of the special court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday, during a hearing on the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal, observed that former West Bengal education minister and ex-Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee was a "privileged" person.
During the hearing in the matter, judge Arpan Kumar Chattopadhyay observed that of the seven accused in the scam presented at the court on Thursday was sitting on a bench, while two others were standing.
Besides Chatterjee, the four others sitting were former president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former chairman of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) Subiresh Bhattacharya, former WBSSC secretary Ashok Saha and former head of the commission's screening committee S.P. Sinha.
However, two middlemen arrested in connection with the scam, namely Prasanna Kumar Roy and Pradip Singh were standing in court.
"Why are they standing? I understand that Partha Chatterjee is privileged. It is all right that he is sitting. But if others get an opportunity to sit, then why are the remaining two standing? This does not look good. Everyone should have equal rights," he said.
In fact, every time while objecting to Partha Chatterjee's bail plea, the CBI counsel had given the argument of "privileged" and "influential" theory against him.
On Thursday, the bail application of Chatterjee and six others were rejected and all of them were remanded to judicial custody till February 16.