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SSLC: CBI probe ordered

Staff Reporter

Government told to hand over relevant files to CBI within 10 days

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the investigation into the SSLC question paper leak case.

Justice A.K. Basheer ordered the State Government to hand over the relevant files to the CBI within 10 days and also directed the CBI to complete the investigation within three months from the date of the takeover of the investigation.

The Judge issued the directive while allowing a writ petition filed by Vishnu Prasad of Kochi. When the petition came up, Johnson Manayani, counsel for the petitioner, contended that the Crime Branch had not been investigating the case properly. He contended that some top officials and political leaders were involved in these operations, and a thorough investigation by the CBI was absolutely warranted.

Allowing the petition, the court observed that in view of the sensitive nature of the case, it had no hesitation to hold that an investigation had to be conducted by an agency like the CBI, which was not under the control of the Government.

The court said though the Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch CID (Analysis Wing), Thiruvananthapuram, "had started investigation on a promising note, it appeared that at a later stage, the investigation process had seemingly lost its purpose and enthusiasm."

Ravindran and C.P. Vijayan Nair, former Secretary and former Superintendent of Pareeksha Bhavan respectively, were implicated only in late July 2005 and that too after a query from the court as to whether any effort was being made to find out the complicity of the officials of the Pareeksha Bhavan.

The court said a perusal of the case diary files revealed "some disturbing and startling aspects of the haphazard manner in which contract for printing of question papers were being awarded over the last sever years.''

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