Chandigarh: The High Court has now given the CBI four months to complete the investigation regarding the misuse of government funds worth crores of rupees in the name of four lakh fake students in Haryana government schools. The court has also directed the Directorate of Primary Education to cooperate with the CBI in the investigation. The CBI has so far registered seven FIRs and an intensive investigation has been going on since the past several years when the scam was exposed in 2016. Even after the High Court’s order issued six years ago, the CBI has not been able to complete the investigation into the misuse of huge government funds in the name of about four lakh students in Haryana’s government schools who never attended the classes. Information reveals that the CBI have sought some more time from the court to complete the investigation, on which the High Court has granted the CBI four months’ time to complete the investigation and submit a report.
According to the order passed by a division bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Meenakshi I Mehta, the court has also directed the Director General of Haryana’s Directorate of Primary Education to cooperate fully in the much delayed investigation process and provide the relevant documents promptly. This order was passed during the disposal of the petition which was filed by the CBI regarding the investigation of this case. The CBI in its demand has informed the court that it has so far re-registered seven FIRs in the case and initiated a detailed investigation process which is still going on. The CBI told the court that many such aspects have come to light which require investigation in-depth, besides such a huge data also needs to be analysed and consolidated consuming much time in process as such the agency requested the court to grant an additional period of four months to finalize and conclude investigation.
CBI also prayed that the Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education be directed to cooperate fully in the investigation and provide the necessary documents on time. The High Court clarified that if any obstruction is created in the investigation by any person, then the CBI will have complete freedom to take appropriate action as per the law. Apart from this, the CBI also requested the court to direct the Registrar General to provide copies of the affidavits and other documents filed by the Education Department and the Haryana Government. Meanwhile, the court clarified that for this, the CBI will have to submit a formal application before the Registrar General as per the rules, since the case is related to the financial scam having an allegation of allocation and misuse of government funds in the name of such students in various government schools across the state in which students were never admitted in the schools in reality thus causing huge financial loss worth crores of rupees to the government related to fake admissions in government schools.
This scam related to fake admissions in government schools was exposed in the High Court in May 2016, when a hearing was going on regarding the deployment of additional teachers in the state schools. The enrollment of 22 lakh students was shown in the schools, while the actual number was found to be about 18 lakh students. It was observed that the remaining four lakh admissions shown were found to be fake allegedly to get funds under government schemes. Earlier, the investigation of this case was handed over to Haryana Police, but dissatisfied with its investigation, the High Court handed it over to the CBI in 2019.
