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: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday reacted sharply to the suspension of party MLA Abu Azmi from the Maharashtra Assembly over his recent controversial remarks praising Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.

In a post on X, Akhilesh slammed the action against Abu Azmi, saying, “If the basis of suspension starts getting influenced by ideology, then what difference will remain between freedom of expression and slavery.”

Defending the SP MLA, he said, “Whether it is our MLAs or MPs, their fearless wisdom is unmatched. If some people think that by ‘suspension’ one can put a rein on the tongue of truth, then this is the childishness of their negative thinking.”

“Today’s free-thinking says, we don’t want BJP!” he added.

Akhilesh Yadav’s response came hours after Abu Azmi was suspended from the House till the end of the Session.

The suspension came a day after Abu Azmi apologized for his remarks on Tuesday, stating that his words had been misinterpreted. In a video statement, Abu Azmi clarified that he was merely citing historical accounts and had no intention of disrespecting any revered figures.

However, soon after his apology, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated that the SP MLA would not be forgiven and “his statement will cost him”.

Chandigarh, March 5: In a Delhi-like protest by farmers, mainly from Punjab, over their long-pending demands, several farm unions under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) are heading to Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, on Wednesday to start their indefinite agitation wherever they were stopped by the security.

As a precaution, the Chandigarh Police have sealed all the entry points to the city by deploying heavy security and issued an advisory to the commuters to avoid these routes.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ughrahan) President Joginder Singh Ughrahan has appealed to the farmers not to block the roads, highways and railway tracks as it would create public inconvenience.

He advised the farmers to stage sit-in protest at roadsides at the place where the security personnel stopped them from moving ahead.

But he appealed to all farmer unions to lodge the protest in a massive way by reaching Chandigarh and joining “Pakka Morcha” in Chandigarh, where the administration has not yet allotted a site for the protest.

Official sources said the farmers would be stopped at the city’s entry point.

The SKM has accused the Punjab government of suppressing right to protest.

Besides the implementation of the agriculture policy, the demands of the SKM include release of land distribution to landless labourers and farmers and debt waiver of farmers and labourers.

Hours after talks between the Punjab government, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and the SKM failed on Monday, raids are being conducted at residences of farmer leaders, including Ugrahan.

Talks to discuss farmers’ demands broke down midway with farmer leaders claiming a “livid” Chief Minister Mann “walked out of the meeting in a huff without a provocation”. After the meeting, the SKM leaders announced to go ahead with their call for massive sit-in protest in Chandigarh.

Ughrahan said the discussions with the Chief Minster were going on smoothly.

“After discussions on eight-nine out of our 18 demands, CM Mann said he had an infection in his eye for which he needed to go,” he told the media.

“The CM then asked us about our plans for the March 5 protest, to which we replied that the discussions were pending and we will take call on our plan to protest after that,” said Ughrahan, adding the CM got upset and left the meeting asking “us to resort to protest”.

Later, Chief Minister Mann said his doors “are always open for talks with the farmers but inconvenience and harassment of the public in the name of agitation should be avoided”.

Interacting with the farmers at a meeting here, the Chief Minister added the “government is always ready to resolve the issues pertaining to various sections of society through negotiations so that trouble to the common man through railway or road blockades must be avoided”.

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday slammed Chief Minister Mann for “ignoring” farmers, while the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) demanded the release of farmer leaders.

Warring accused the Chief Minister of arrogance and dismissive behaviour towards the SKM.

He said rather than engaging in constructive discussions to resolve the farmers’ grievances, the government has resorted to conducting raids on the residences of farm leaders.

Expressing shock at the manner in which leaders of the SKM were being treated, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia said: “Mr Bhagwant Mann threatened the kisan leaders with dire consequences when he was reminded of the promises he had made to farmers before assuming charge as Chief Minister in 2022.”

Reminding Chief Minister Mann about the promises made by him to farmers, the Akali leader said: “Mann assured farmers and farm labourers that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would remodel farm policies to ensure no farm suicide occurred in the state.”

The Chief Minister also assured farmers that farm income would be doubled and that his government would implement the M.S. Swaminathan Report whether the Centre did that or not.

Farmers were also assured that every crop would be procured by the state on minimum support price (MSP), he added.