CBI hot on the trail of Ampareen’s supporters

SHILLONG: In an attempt to speed up criminal investigation into the education scam case that hit headlines recently, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team has launched a manhunt for two supporters of Cabinet Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh.
The initial CBI report had mentioned JD Sangma, then director of Elementary and Mass Education, as disclosing that based on the letters/slips of paper containing recommendations with respect to candidates for appointment as LP school teachers, “he with the help of two more persons (identity unknown to him), who were supporters of the then education minister (Lyngdoh), had applied white fluid on the score sheet and inflated the marks of the candidates ordered to be appointed by the education minister. This tampering of the scorecard was partially made at the residence of the minister and at Sangma’s office.”
The CBI recently registered a case against Lyngdoh, Additional Chief Secretary PS Thangkhiew, who was then Principal Secretary in charge of education, the Directorate of Elementary and Mass Education (DEME), and other unidentified persons.
Earlier, though Sangma was quizzed by the CBI, Lyngdoh as well as other ministers and MLAs who had recommended the names of their favourite candidates, were left unscathed.
The 107-page first probe report of the CBI said: “It was felt necessary to examine JD Sangma, then Director of DEME. In the course of his examination, Sangma stated that under the instruction of then minister of education, Ampareen Lyngdoh, he had to change the score sheets by applying white fluid on the original marks as awarded by the Board. Sangma also handed over a file containing a list received by the minister from different persons/ MLAs/ ministers recommending the names of the candidates for selection as teachers in LP schools of Meghalaya.”