Partha Chatterjee's custody extended till Nov 28

KOLKATA: Magistrate of Special CBI Court in Alipore on Friday asked CBI why the 677 unsuccessful candidates who got jobs by manipulating the numbers were not arrested.

On Friday former Education minister Partha Chatterjee, former Chairman of West Bengal Central School Service Commission, Subiresh Bhattacharya, former president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former Advisor of West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) Santi Prasad Sinha and three others were produced at the court by the CBI with an appeal for their judicial custody.

During the hearing, CBI informed the court that for the sake of the SSC recruitment scam probe, investigating officers may need to interrogate them.

For that reason, it is necessary to keep the arrested persons in judicial custody.

After hearing the CBI's petition, the magistrate asked the CBI officer why the 677 unsuccessful candidates were not arrested when they were involved in the alleged crime.

Replying to the magistrate's question, CBI

official said that among them four were interrogated.

Hearing this, the magistrate reportedly asked how many more days it will take to interrogate all the 677 unsuccessful candidates.

When CBI officials informed the court that their statements had been recorded, the concerned magistrate was, however, not convinced.

Despite lawyers of all seven accused praying for bail, it was rejected by the court after the hearing.

All of them had been remanded to judicial custody till November 28.