Mumbai: Four police constables attached to Dharavi Police Station were suspended on Thursday after a video of them allegedly accepting bribes from hawkers surfaced on social media.

According to officials, the suspended constables were deployed as beat marshals on patrolling vehicles, responsible for taking action against illegal roadside eateries and food stalls. However, instead of enforcing the law, they were caught on camera extorting money from hawkers.

Following the video’s viral spread, senior police officials initiated an internal inquiry and ordered their immediate suspension.

Kolkata, March 6: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials probing the cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal will now question some influential persons who directly recommended ineligible candidates to the former state education minister Partha Chatterjee.

The CBI now has definite clues about the influential persons directly recommending ineligible candidates who were paying money for school jobs, to the former Trinamool Congress secretary general.

Sources said that the investigating officers have a list of 132 such individuals who made job recommendations at different levels.

However, sources added, the sleuths are shortlisting only those who had direct reach to Partha Chatterjee and hence made the recommendations directly to him.

The shortlisting of the individuals has been done on the basis of their communication with Partha Chatterjee through written recommendations or through WhatsApp and SMS messages.

However, the CBI sleuths are totally tightlipped over the names that have already been shortlisted till the process if completed and summons are issued to them for interrogation.

The investigating officials said that their statements would be extremely crucial to make the case more water-tight against Chatterjee.

The CBI sleuths have also got specific information about Chatterjee personally shortlisting ineligible candidate paying money for school jobs.

This personal shortlisting, sources added, was done more in case of selection of primary teachers than secondary and higher secondary teachers.

Recently, the CBI submitted a report to Calcutta High Court giving details of the candidates who secured appointments even after submitting blank answer sheets in the written examination for recruitment.

In the report, sources added, the central agency sleuths also provided explanation of how the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets used in the written examination were manipulated for such candidates.

Chatterjee, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the school job case in July 2022, has also been identified as the main brain behind the scam in the charge sheet filed by the central agency.

Besides him, his close associate Arpita Mukherjee and his son-in-law are among the other accused individuals, as mentioned in the ED’s charge sheet.

A trust titled Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, that has been named after Chatterjee’s deceased wife, is also named in the ED charge sheet as an accused entity.

It is alleged that the ill-gotten proceeds were shown as donations to this particular trust and thus diverted.

Mumbai: The state government has challenged before the Bombay High Court the order of the Thane sessions judge by which it kept “in abeyance” the findings of magistrate inquiry report implicating policemen in the death of accsued in the Badlapur sexual assault case. The State, however, remained non-committal on whether it would register an FIR against the policemen concerned based on the report.

Public Prosecutor Hiteen Venegaonkar informed a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Neela Gokhale that they have filed an application before the HC challenging the February 21 order of the Thane sessions court keeping in abeyance the magistrate’s report questioning the legitimacy of the alleged encounter.

On a specific question by the bench on whether an FIR would be lodged against the five policemen based on the findings of the magistrate report, the State maintained that the observations in the magistraterial report cannot be a basis for an FIR.

Senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for the government, said the an independent investigation is being conducted by the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in addition to a probe by an inquiry committee headed by retired judge of Allahabad HC, DB Bhosale. Hence, said that the State will wait for the conclusion of the CID probe before taking any decision.

“State believes that the investigation is ongoing and based upon it’s outcome, it will decide whether FIR is needed to be filed; or no cognisable offence is made and a closure report has to be filed,” Desai underlined.

Desai submitted that it can’t be said that the magistrate’s report “constitutes as evidence to lodge an FIR”. “We are doing our bit and there is nothing to suggest that the investigating officers (of CID) are acting in a mala fide manner for the court to intervene,” he added.

The bench again pointedly asked whether the State proposes to lodge an FIR. “Once that the report has come, our question is whether it is incumbent on the state to register an FIR or not. Today, the question is whether the state proposes to lodge an FIR or not? Say yes or no,” the court asked.

Desai emphasised that the independent probe was on and at this stage it is not permissible for the court to order registering of an FIR based on the magistrate’s inquiry report. The court will continue hearing the matter on March 10.

Last week, the HC had appointed senior advocate Manjula Rao as amicus curiae (friend of the court) to assist with the plea after Shinde’s parents expressed that they did not wish to pursue the case. Rao has been asked to assist the court on several issues, including whether an FIR ought to be registered by the State based on the magistrate’s report. The issue arose after the State argued that the magistrate’s report was only recommendatory.

The father had initially filed a petition claiming that his son was killed in a fake encounter.

Meanwhile, the State’s application against Thane sessions court order would be taken up for hearing after two weeks by Justice RN Laddha. The government has contended that the sessions judge order was “wrong, illegal and against the facts and circumstances of the case”. It contended that the sessions court had failed to consider the fact that the HC was seized of the matter related to the alleged encounter of the accused.

The HC had last week censured the sessions judge for the order.

Shinde had been arrested by the Badlapur police for allegedly sexually assaulting minor girls at a local school. While in judicial custody at Taloja Prison, he was taken into police custody on September 23 via a transfer warrant in connection with a second FIR lodged by his wife. However, during transit, he sustained firearm injuries and later succumbed.

The magistrate’s report, prepared on January 17, raised suspicion on the claims made by the five cops that they had to shoot at the accused in self-defence after he allegedly snatched a gun from them while being escorted. The magistrate noted the policemen, including two inspector-level officers, were in a position to control the situation and the use of force by them was not justified.