SHILLONG, Nov 2 - After nearly ten years, Meghalaya High Court today directed CBI to take over the criminal case filed against �a Government official and a politician� who allegedly tampered the result scores of candidates in a Government teachers� recruitment process in 2009-2010.
The judgment was passed by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheswari and Justice Ved Prakash Vaish. In the judgment the High Court directed that the Laitumkhrah police case No. 62(7) of 2011 be withdrawn from the State Police and be transferred to CBI.
�Laitumukhrah PS Case No. 62 (7) stands withdrawn from the State Police and stands transferred to CBI for appropriate investigation and submission of its result within six months from today,� the Court directed. Moreover, the Court said that the State Government must hand over the Case Diary to CBI counsel.
The Court also directed that �untainted and unblemished� candidates, as per reports of CBI and High Level Scrutiny Committee (HLSC), who qualified in the examination and are still in service �may be allowed to continue as stop-gap arrangement� until fresh selection takes place.
However, none of the candidates who has been �found tainted and blemished, whether in the report of CBI or in the report of HLSC� and recommended by the public representative shall be taken or retained in service even in stop-gap arrangement.
Moreover, all the untainted and unblemished candidates, whether in service or not, shall be allowed to participate in the fresh selection process and none of them �shall be treated as age-barred.�
The case dates back to 2008 when the advertisement for teachers� job in primary schools across the State was floated. The year after the examination was held and the results declared, some of the candidates applied for RTI and found that their score sheets were erased with erasable ink. The tampering occurred in five centres � Shillong Sadar, Jowai, Amlarem, Tura and Dadenggre.
One of the aggrieved candidates filed an FIR at the Laitumkhrah police station after not qualifying the examination and finding that the score sheet was erased.
The candidate alleged in the FIR that the then �Director of Elementary and Mass Education and the politician involved� who had manipulated with the exam scores.
The then Director of Elementary and Mass Education was JD Sangma. The matter went to Court and a CBI inquiry was initiated based on the Court�s direction.
The CBI indicted Sangma and the then Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh (currently Labour Minister) as involved in tampering the result sheets.
Meanwhile, CBI would now investigate the case and it is to be seen whether it would press additional charges against the politician allegedly involved, as Laitumkhrah police has only registered the case under section 408 IPC, which is criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant.