Kolkata, May 2 (IANS): The non-teaching staff in Group C category in state-run schools, whose services were terminated following an order of the Calcutta High Court, have named an influential Trinamool Congress leader who allegedly received money for ensuring their jobs, during questioning by the CBI over the past couple of days.

Sources said that the leader named by most of these terminated candidates questioned by the CBI was known to be a close confidant of former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, who is currently in judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the scam.

However, for the sake of investigation, the CBI is reluctant to name the influential leader named by the terminated candidates.

The CBI is supposed to question seven other terminated candidates in Group C category on Wednesday. In the last two days, the central agency had questioned 10 such terminated candidates.

Last month, the West Bengal Staff Selection Commission (WBSSC) had published a list of 842 non-teaching staff in Group C category for different state-run schools whose services were terminated following an order by the Calcutta High Court.

The CBI has already secured information about 8,163 OMR sheets that were allegedly tampered to make room for ineligible candidates. Of the 8,163 OMR sheets, 6,304 were that of non-teaching staff -- 3,481 Group D posts and 2,823 Group C posts.

In case of teaching staff, the total number of OMR sheets that were tampered stands at 1,859, out of which 952 were for recruitment of secondary teachers while the remaining 907 were for recruitment of teachers at the higher secondary level.