By IANS
New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has approached the Haryana assembly speaker to seek mandatory sanction to put on trial former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala for his alleged involvement in irregularities in the appointment of junior basic trained (JBT) teachers.
The investigating agency’s request for the sanction to prosecute the former chief minister came after it submitted an investigation report in the JBT scam in the Supreme Court.
The apex court granted CBI eight weeks’ time to get the sanction to prosecute Chautala, who is a member of the Haryana legislative assembly, and public servants involved in the scam.
Permission has also been sought from competent authorities to prosecute the director of primary education in Haryana government, Sanjiv Kumar. For public servants, the prosecution sanction has to be taken from the president of India, the appointing authority.
During preliminary investigation, the CBI also registered a case against Vidya Dhar, the then Officer on Special Duty of Chautala. The CBI has also sought sanction to prosecute him.
A public interest litigation filed in 2003 had alleged widespread corruption in the appointments of JBT teachers in Haryana in 1999-2000 and that Chautala, the then chief minister, was directly involved in the scam. Chautala was the chief minister from 1995-2000.
Following the PIL, Kumar also filed a petition alleging that the lists of the candidates recruited for the 2,000 posts of teachers were changed at the behest of Chautala.
However, Chautala, the president of the Indian National Lok Dal, contended that Kumar himself had indulged in “corrupt” practices and insisted that it was Kumar who changed the lists.
The Supreme Court handed over the probe to the CBI, which took four years to complete investigation in the case. The CBI had raided Chautala’s houses and grilled his sons during the course of investigation.