Court quashes charges against Ampareen, 2 officials in alleged job scam
Shillong, Sep 4: In a landmark judgement citing “failure of prosecution”, the Meghalaya High Court has quashed charges against former Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh and two senior officials of the Education department in alleged scam in recruitment of teachers, ending the 17-long-year legal battle for the accused.
Former Director of Elementary and Mass Education JD Sangma and former Deputy Director Ameka I Lyngdoh are the two officials, absolved of the charges along with the minister, in connection with the alleged irregularities in the 2008 lower primary school assistant teacher recruitment process.
“The selection process is of 2008. About 17 years have rolled by. The first FIR was lodged on 18 July, 2011. Nothing has moved significantly in prosecuting the accused. Only 28 out of 181 witnesses have been examined,” the court said in its order passed on Thursday.
“Such enormous delay in prosecuting a criminal case is also against the fundamental rights of the accused…,” it added.
Based on an FIR lodged in 2011, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case in 2018, alleging that the accused had conspired to manipulate score sheets and favour certain candidates.
Five centres of examination – Shillong, Jowai, Amlarem, Tura and Dadenggre – for the recruitment came under purview of the investigation.
Accordingly, CBI filed a chargesheet in 2020, and the Special Judge (CBI) dismissed the accused’s applications for discharge in 2022.
However, the court while passing the judgement, observed that, “At the rate it is proceeding, examination of all witnesses might take up the entirety of the remaining life of the accused.”
The court said it had exercised its power to prevent abuse of the process of any court or to secure the ends of justice, in setting aside the CBI court’s 2022 order.
“The charges against the accused A1, A2 and A3 are quashed. The entire criminal proceedings are hereby quashed. Each of the accused 1, 2 and 3 are hereby discharged,” the bench headed by Chief Justice IP Mukerji said in its judgment.
Narrating the charges against the minister and the two officials, the court said, “Now, the case of the prosecution is that A1, A2 and A3 were in conspiracy, connivance and collaboration with one another. They had manipulated the score sheets, thereby, displacing the successful candidates by candidates of their choice. The original score sheets were different. White ink was used to erase the marks and substitute them by higher or lower marks as the case may be to accommodate the preferred candidates and to remove the undesirable ones. Furthermore, they had a charge against accused No. 1 (Ampareen Lyngdoh) that using her influence as minister, she had furnished slips to the officers preparing the tabulation sheets directing alteration of marks.”
“First of all, the three documents showing various levels in tabulation of results were signed by the self-same five persons,” the court stated.
Secondly, the said slips which had been produced as evidence could not by themselves suggest any specific direction for alteration of marks. The originals have not been produced as evidence, it said.
“No document showing interpolation or any application of white ink for erasing the marks are on record. The said slips which have been produced with some remarks of A1 could be for more than one purpose. There is no further evidence to link those slips with the charge of manipulation of results,” the bench stated.
Blaming the prosecution for failing to establish the case against the accused, the court said, “…if the prima facie case sought to be made out by the prosecution… is so weak that a reasonable suspicion of the accused having committed the crime does not arise, the Court on consideration of this evidence is empowered to discharge the accused.”
The bench also noted that the selection process was initiated in 2008, and the case had been pending for over 17 years, causing mental anxiety to the accused.
