The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Court acquits accused in mark sheet scam case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 26, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Court acquits accused in mark sheet scam case

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, DEC. 25. Twenty-two years after the scandal rocked the State, a magistrate court here acquitted eight of the 17 persons charged with providing bogus mark sheets and degree certificates to a number of students enabling them to join medical colleges and industrial training institutes.

The other nine died during the over two-decade trial. The investigating officer, Inspector Seshadhri, who had registered the first information report and conducted a major part of the probe, went blind before the case came up for trial and could not adduce evidence on the documents collected by the prosecution. In his acquittal order, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Arulraj, observed that none of the prosecution witness was alive now. Since the main witnesses had died the prosecution was unable to prove the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt, he concluded.

The case relates to the preparation of fake mark sheets and degree certificates of various universities and educational institutions in May 1982, enabling a large number of students who had either failed in examinations or scored poor marks to join professional courses in Chennai, Vellore, Arakkonam, Tiruvannamalai and other regions in the State.

The fraud came to light only after an assistant director in the Directorate of Medical Education, Sharbuddeen, filed a complaint against Shanthi, who joined the Thanjavur Medical College in 1981-82 batch by furnishing fake academic documents.

Acquitting the accused, Mr. Arulraj said though the police claimed to have raided several premises and recovered a large number of documents, there were no independent witnesses to corroborate the claim. Similarly, there was no independent witness to buttress the prosecution charge that Jagdeesan's printing press in Vellore had been raided and material objects seized from the premises.

The magistrate then directed the prosecution to destroy all material objects, including typewriting machines and numbering equipment, besides stamp and inkpads, printing blocks and rubber stamps after the appeal period.

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