GUWAHATI, March 28 � The education department has sought fifteen days� time from the Gauhati High Court (GHC) for finalizing the status on the issuance of prosecution sanctions against the five senior officials listed as accused by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) investigating the multi-crore-rupee teachers� appointment scam.
The time was sought by the Commissioner Secretary, education department.
The court, in its recent hearing, had also asked the education department to clarify a few pertinent points in the interest of the investigation.
The CID had listed 16 education department officials as accused in the scam though it managed to secure prosecution sanctions against 11 of them.
The court had asked the education department to facilitate issuance of the prosecution sanctions against the five officials, but the same did not materialize.
The five accused include four former directors of elementary education including Joy Chandra Goswami, Mohsin Ali, Hemanta Kumar Sarma, besides Indreswar Bora, a former district elementary education officer.
�Unless the prosecution sanctions against the five accused are given, the investigation would not proceed further,� the sources stated.
The scam which came to the fore in 2007, unearthed siphoning off of several crores of rupees from 1989 to 2007 in the elementary education department in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts.
