After ‘establishing’ his role in the scam involving Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) in the state, crime branch of police on Tuesday arrested former chairman of J&K Board of school education, Dr Sheikh Bashir Ahmad. Inspector General of Police Crime Branch Muneer Khan told Global News Service (GNS) that the former chairman was arrested from Srinagar.“After establishing his role in the scam, he has been arrested and is presently being questioned,” he said.The IGP said that two cases, one each in Jammu and Kashmir, stand already registered in connection with the scam. The cases have been registered for offences of corruption (under 5(2) PC Act) as well as RPC sections of 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 471 (counterfeit seal).“The investigation pertains to 494 ETT colleges in Jammu and around 70 such institutes in Kashmir and we are investigating the batch-wise details from 2003,” he added.
According to GNS, a preliminary inquiry conducted by the Board of School Education (BOSE) into the training course by ETT colleges has already described it a “big scandal run by mafia in league with the top brass in the BOSE.” The case is being monitor by the state high court. In one of its status reports filed before the court, the crime branch has informed that that hundreds of crores of rupees are given and taken as bribe and almost all concerned people are involved in the ‘loot’.
The status report also revealed that timely registration hasn’t been made, no classes conducted and even no hostel facilities were available to the candidates. “The candidates are lured, and huge amount, ranging from Rs 45000 to Rs 80,000, is received from each student,” it said.
During the course of enquiry, the report said, the BOSE authorities were found to have granted affiliation to the colleges in violation of norms.In fact, the report added, the affiliation was granted to the institutions which hadn’t even applied for ‘No Objection Certificate’ as well as to those whose NOC was not renewed by the competent authority.“The Board was granting affiliation even without conducting academic inspection to ascertain as to whether the institution(s) had sufficient teaching facilities as provided in the guidelines. The institutions were allowed to register the candidates with Board beyond the intake capacity and were also provided the NOC by the Education Department.”The entrepreneurs of the institutions in league with the BOSE authorities were found to have manipulated and fabricated the examination forms of the candidates, the report said. (GNS)