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The single judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay had directed the transfer of the investigation to the CBI on an application filed by the Enforcement Directorate.
A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Monday upheld the order of a single judge bench which dismissed the review petition filed by the West Bengal government against the order transferring the probe into the West Bengal Municipality Recruitment Scam to CBI.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the State had moved the plea before the vacation bench of Justices Biswajit Basu and Apurba Sinha Ray.
Background
An application was filed by the ED with a specific pleading that while investigating the teachers’ appointment scam, it came across the Municipality Recruitment Scam in the State which got intermingled on account of common agents and common beneficiaries. It was further prayed that a separate FIR for investigation of Municipality Recruitment Scam under the relevant provisions of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act by the predicate agency (meaning thereby CBI) would be required.
On April 21, 2023, the single bench judge, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered a CBI probe into the Municipality Recruitment scam.
On April 28, the Supreme Court refused to stay the single bench order of the Calcutta High Court instructing the (CBI) Central Bureau of Investigation to examine the scam of municipal recruitment in the state of West Bengal.
The apex court stated that the status quo will be maintained in the ongoing CBI & ED investigations for a period of one week from the date of passing the order.
Furthermore, Supreme Court on the same day directed the Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to reassign the matter to another judge of the Calcutta High Court.
A review petition was then filed by the government of West Bengal through the Secretary, Department of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs, seeking a review of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's order dated April 21, 2022.
Later on, the matter was reassigned to Justice Amrita Sinha.
Justice Sinha dismissed the review peition while stating that “The scam in the municipalities is not an independent offence but is a part of the larger offence involving more or less the same persons, similar nature of the crime, similar proceeds of crime, similar victims that is the common people who are the unemployed youth of the society.”
The present vacation bench has listed the matter on June 06, 2023 for further hearing.
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