SHILLONG: The charge-sheet against Cabinet Minister Deborah Marak has raised questions about the selective activism in dispensing justice.
While Deborah is apparently at the receiving end for siding with the dissidents in the Congress, the case against her cabinet colleague Ampareen Lyngdoh, who is allegedly involved in the sensational education scam as unearthed by the CBI, has remained buried on the plea that the matter is jub-judice.
With three FIRs pending against Lyngdoh due to the education scam, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said that since the matter was pending in the court he cannot make any comment.
Three years on, the case has progressed little and there seems to be no urgency to dispose it of, one way or another.
At his press conference on Tuesday a question was posed to the Chief Minister on the delay in filing charge-sheet against Ampareen and the cryptic reply was that the issue was still pending in the court.
“The matter is still in the court of law and it has not been disposed of. We have complete faith in the judiciary”, Sangma said.
Ampareen is known to have thrown her political lot with the Chief Minister in the on-going clamour for change in leadership.
For the record, there are at least three complaints lodged with the police to initiate action against those involved in the scam.
One of the job aspirants, Sharaidalyne Wahlang, whose scoresheet was tampered, filed an FIR in July 2011 at Laitumkhrah police station against the Director of Elementary and Mass Education alleging manipulation of her marks during the announcement of the results of interview for the posts of assistant lower primary teachers.
Wahlang had pointed out that her marks under ‘experience’ had been erased from the compilation sheet.
Wahlang had submitted a certificate of five years of experience while applying for the post in 2009, result of which was declared in December the same year. The criteria for selection for the post were on the basis of written test or personal test besides teaching experience.
Besides the complaint of Wahlang, earlier on February 12, 2010 an FIR was lodged by CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing before the SP, East Khasi Hills, seeking investigation into the scam.
Later, with the delay in the probe, Kharshiing along with another social activist Angela Rangad jointly filed an FIR at Laitumkhrah police station in November 2012 to probe the matter.
Unhappy over further delay in the probe, Kharshiing wrote to the Chief Judicial Magistrate regarding the matter and subsequently, the Court ordered the police to register a case. In April, 2013, police questioned J.D. Sangma, the then Director of Mass and Elementary Education but there was no further progress.
In June this year, the police made a request before the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate to get the seized documents on the education scam from CBI for further investigation into the matter. A text message was sent to SP East Khasi Hills M Kharkrang on the status of the case, but there was no reply from him.