Teachers' scam: Calcutta HC orders replacement of CBI officer

A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered immediate replacement of an inspector-rank officer from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal.

The officer to be replaced as ordered by the single- judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay is Somnath Biswas. Giving a clear instruction, Justice Gangopadhyay said that neither would Biswas remain associated with the probe process nor should he be allowed to touch any file pertaining to the investigation.

He also ordered the deputy inspector general-rank officer of CBI heading the SIT to arrange for the replacement of Biswas and inform the court on this count by Thursday.

Although Justice Gangopadhyay did not cite any reason for the direction, it is learnt that he was unhappy as some of his queries were unanswered in the progress report submitted by the central agency to his court.

This is not the first time that Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered for the replacement of the members of SIT of CBI probing the matter.

On November 16 last year too, his bench ordered the reconstitution of the SIT. He then ordered the replacement of K.C. Rishinamul, a deputy superintendent rank officer and Imran Ashique, an inspector rank officer. He then said that Rishinamol and Ashique would be replaced by four officers -- deputy superintendent Angshuman Saha, inspector Biswanath Chakraborty, inspector Pradip Tripathi and inspector Wasim Akram Khan.

However, the only difference this time is that Justice Gangopadhyay had left the replacement on the discretion of the head of SIT unlike in November last year when he himself named the replacements.