GUWAHATI, March 6 - The Education department has ordered suspension of Inspector of Schools (Jorhat) Hiren Gogoi in connection with the incident of burning of over 12,000 answer-scripts in Jorhat.
Sources said that the order copy was issued by the department this afternoon fixing responsibility for the Friday incident.
The Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA) today stated that altogether 12,587 answer-scripts of the HSLC examination were gutted in the fire. The highest damage was caused to answer-scripts belonging to the students of Bongaigaon district with the number of damaged answer-scripts in the district put at 5,035.
The other major affected districts are Dima Hasao (819), Cachar (1,116), Dhubri (1,323), Kamrup Metro (533), Goalpara (789), Kamrup (1,390) and Karbi Anglong (564).
Further, the special examination is to be held for the candidates affected by the burning of answer-scripts on a date (yet to be specified) within the month of March. The candidate will have the option of not appearing in the examination in which case the highest marks scored by the candidate among the rest of papers will be awarded for the affected paper.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam Police has begun its probe into the incident, which a section, including the Education Minister, suspects to be an act of sabotage.
Jorhat Correspondent adds: A CID team headed by SSP Dr N Rajamarthandan today questioned the headmistress and the watchman and some other staff-members of Sankardev Seminary of Jorhat at the preliminary stage of their inquiry into the answer-scripts burning case. Including the fingerprints, which were apparent in some vital locations of the room of sabotage, some other materials were also collected by the team for forensic examination.
Asked about their findings, a senior CID official said the inquiry was at the early stage and they would have to question many other people to detect the criminals suspected to be involved in the arson.
Sources said that some staff-members of the school did not appear before the CID today though they were asked to cooperate in the inquiry.
