SHILLONG: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday filed charge sheet against three individuals including former Education Minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh for their alleged involvement in the education scam.
Sources said that the charge sheet was filed in a special court against Congress MLA Ampareen, retired education officials JD Sangma and AI Lyngdoh.
Sangma, an NPP member, is currently the chairman of Tura Municipal Board.
The CBI has not filed charge sheet against others as there was no evidence.
Earlier this year, the CBI had written to the state government seeking approval for prosecution against the accused persons and it was granted recently by the Governor and other competent authorities. “In a day or two, the CBI will supply all the documents to the special court and then the court would summon the accused persons,” the CBI sources said.
Earlier, the High Court of Meghalaya had on November 2, 2016 ordered the CBI to probe the criminal aspect of the scam as the police had delayed the investigation.
The task was to investigate the alleged manipulation of score sheets and interference in the selection of assistant teachers in lower primary schools in 2008-09.
Based on the order of the court, the CBI had registered an FIR under various sections related to criminal conspiracy, forgery and criminal breach of trust against the accused.
The CBI had last year searched five locations in Shillong, including the residence of Ampareen, the house of Sangma in Tura who was the director of elementary and mass education and the Jowai residence of retired deputy director AI Lyngdoh.
The allegation against Ampareen was that she had instructed Sangma and two of her supporters to tamper with and forge the score sheets by applying white fluid.
In the 107-page report, the CBI had said, “In the course of his examination, JD Sangma had stated that under the instruction of the then education minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, he had to change the score sheet as prepared by all the five boards duly applying white fluid on the original marks as awarded by the members of the board.”
However, in her response, Ampareen had said, “If an uncorroborated statement of an official is the basis for all the allegations levelled against me, then no politician would ever be able to function in our democratic polity. No minister would like to be at the mercy of an official who gives statements according to his whims and fancies.”