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Monday, Nov 12, 2007
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Marks scandal: three BSE ex-employees held

Correspondent

Investigations still in progress, says IG

CUTTACK: In a dramatic turn of events, the State Crime branch police on Sunday arrested three former employees of the State Board of Secondary Education (BSE) for their alleged role in Matriculation mark sheet scandal involving the son of a former State Cabinet minister.

The crime branch police arrested former BSE secretary Minaketan Pani, former examination controller Manmohan Swain and a section officer Nityananda Suttar. They were summoned to the crime branch office in the afternoon for interrogation and were arrested immediately.

Till this report was prepared, the arrested officials were taken into custody for producing before the Cuttack Sadar SDJM’s residence, as the day was holiday. Sources said the three former employees of the Board were likely to be remanded in custody for they will not be able to apply for bail.

Evidences

Crime branch IG B.K.Sharma when contacted said the arrests were made; as there were sufficient documentary evidences against them showing their involvement in manipulation of mark foils, change in marks and forgery.

He however, indicated that arrest of some more persons in the case couldn’t be ruled out as investigations into it are still in progress.

“We are now looking into the beneficiaries in the case and if possible the minister’s son would also come into the purview of the investigation”, Sharma informed.

Magic marks

The scandal had rocked the State in August this year when it was revealed that the State School and Mass Education Minister’s son had received “magic marks”.

The minister’s son Bijay Shankar Das, who passed the annual school leaving examination in May this year had got inflated marks in as many as five subjects and his total marks jumped from 478 to 602 from a total of 750.

He was however; issued a second mark sheet (a fake one with corrections) without the approval of the BSE president and examination committee, following which the scandal was made public.

The minister was then forced to put in his papers while the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had ordered for an administrative enquiry by the chief secretary.

The chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy in his report had indicted at least six employees of the BSE in the scandal and had recommended for a crime branch enquiry into the entire episode. On the basis of Tripathy’s report, the government had put all the six employees, including Pani, Swain and Suttar under suspension.

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