The Hindu : New Delhi News : School principal arrested

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

School principal arrested

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 19. The principal of a public school has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police for allegedly providing fake marksheets of Class X and XII of the Central Board of Secondary Education after taking money from failed students.

According to the police, a case in this regard had been registered at Keshavpuram in North-West Delhi on Monday. Following investigations, the police arrested Santosh Kumari Bhardwaj, principal of Mata Shiv Devi (MSD) Public School in Keshavpuram.

Earlier, Rajender Mahan, a resident of Paharganj in Central Delhi, had told the police that he had given Rs. 50,000 to Santosh last year for providing him for marksheets of Class X and Class XII. Rajender had failed in the Class X examinations about 20 years ago. He could not continue his studies due to some family problem. But, he needed the marksheets, which showed him as passed, to get a decent job. He contacted Rajesh Kumar, his childhood friend who was employed in the MSD Public School. Rajesh asked him to contact the principal.

Rajender met Santosh last year and was promised Class X and XII marksheets in lieu of Rs. 50,000. He paid her Rs. 5,000 in advance and was asked to meet her later. In December 2003, Rajender paid the remaining Rs. 45,000 to the principal. She gave him two marksheets which showed Rajender having passed Class X and XII.

However, Rajender began doubting the genuineness of the marksheets as he had not appeared in any examination and contacted the CBSE to ascertain the same. The Board told him that the marksheets were fake. He then confronted Santosh and demanded his money back. But she refused following which Rajender informed the police.

Investigations also revealed that there were other complaints pending against Santosh and that the school management was aware about them. In 1998, Santosh had helped to students, Nidhi Gupta and Sangeeta Rani, in getting admissions to Class XI, on the basis of fake marksheets, after they had failed in Class X examinations. Sangeeta's family had paid up Rs. 15,000 for the fake marksheets, which was given to her as genuine on the pretext that her marks had increased after revaluation.

Later, both the students were rusticated after the fraud was detected. However, no action was taken action against Santosh, even though the State Education Department had instituted many inquiries against her. The police said some officials of the CBSE were also conniving with Santosh and efforts were on to trace them.

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