Kolkata, Mar 02, 2023, IANS

Kolkata, March 2 (IANS): A special CBI court here on Thursday extended the judicial remand of former West Bengal education minister and ex-Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee in connection with the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in the state till March 16.

A similar order was also issued for 12 other accused in the scam, including former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Kalyanmoy Ganguli; former chairman of West Bengal School Service Commission; Subiresh Bhattacharya, former head of WBSSC's screening committee S.P. Sinha, and former secretary of the commission Ashok Saha, among others.

On Wednesday, Chatterjee made a physical appearance in the court.

He had said that although central agencies have stated that an arrested youth Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh has claimed that Chatterjee is involved in the scam, he is "not aware of who Ghosh is".

"My name has been dragged in the recruitment scam. But as the then education minister, I did not have any recruiting authority. These recruitments were done by the autonomous bodies under the Education Department," Chatterjee said.

However, the arguments offered by him and the counsel of 13 others could not satisfy the court, and the judge extended the judicial custody of the accused by another 14 days.

At the same time, the judge of the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court expressed dissatisfaction over the slow progress of the probe agency's investigation in the matter.