SHILLONG: Police have allegedly dilly dallied on the probe related to education scam as it has failed to file a petition in High Court of Meghalaya to get the documents related to the scam from CBI for almost a year.
An official source said on Tuesday after the then court of Chief Judicial Magistrate B. Joshi had directed police to knock the door of High Court of Meghalaya to get the papers related to education scam from CBI, no petition was filed by police in the High Court even after a year.
It was in July last year that Chief Judicial Magistrate had asked the CBI to hand over the relevant papers to the state police after making an inventory and acknowledgment receipt of the same.
But the argument of the counsel of the CBI was that since it was the High Court which ordered the CBI probe into the education scam, the papers can be handed over to police after a direction from the High Court. The CBI had also filed petition before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in this regard.
Following the petition, the lower court had asked police to seek the intervention of the High Court for the papers seized by CBI.
The CBI is yet to get any direction from the High Court to hand over the education scam related papers.
“We are yet to get any notice from the High Court and this means that the police have not even approached the High Court”, one of the counsels for the CBI said on Tuesday.
Several FIRs were filed from 2010 till 2012 by the affected persons to prosecute those who were involved in the scam. Later, the police was compelled to register the case following a direction from the lower court. After registering the case, in April, 2013, police had only quizzed the then Director of Mass and Elementary Education J.D. Sangma. Later, police wanted the seized papers from CBI to carry on with the probe. The CBI had observed in the 107-page report that, “It was felt necessary to examine J.D. Sangma,
the then Director DEME. In course of his examination by the CBI, Sangma has stated that under the instruction of the then Minister of Education – Ampareen Lyngdoh – he had to change the score sheets as prepared by all the five boards duly applying white fluid on the original marks, as awarded by the members of the Board. Sangma also handed over a file containing the list received by the said Minister from different persons/ MLAs/ Ministers recommending the names of their own candidates for selection as teacher in LP schools in Meghalaya”.