High-profile ETT institutes scam
*Left out owners arrayed as accused
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 4: In the high-profile Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) institutes scam, which is pending for the last nine years, the court of Special Judge Anti-corruption Jammu has ordered framing of charges against the then Chairman BOSE M A Charoo, Bashir Ahmed Dar, the then Director Academics and owners of five ETT institutes namely Manish Suri, Sudershan Kumar, Kamal Kumar Gupta, Ashok Kumar and Rajesh Sharma.
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Moreover, on the basis of the material before the court, the left out accused were also arraigned as accused in the case and bailable warrants issued for their appearance before the court on the next date of hearing. The order was passed by the Special Judge Anti-corruption Court Jammu Tahir Khurshid Raina.
The instant charge sheet in the scam was based on a Public Interest Litigation pending in the High Court at Srinagar wherein several directions were issued to the Government to comply with in respect of ETT institutes. Finally on filing of the charge sheet in the year 2015, the PIL was closed. In the charge sheet it was alleged that there has been an unprecedented scam in the educational sector on account of opening ETTs in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.
It is alleged that from 2000 onwards, the then Chairman, JK BOSE M A Charoo in connivance with the then Director Academics Bashir Ahmed Dar and Deputy Director Academics R K Jalali in utter misuse of their power and position opened 22 Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) institutes in the State without having any notification, policy, program and syllabus in this regard.
The Board authorities and blue eyed owners of the institutes were in active connivance with each other in this illegal act on account of which the Board authorities didn’t even ensure any infrastructure to have been put in place by institutes. With the result, the institutes in a span of two years, enrolled hundreds and thousands of students from outside the State, illegally who were simply promised to purchase degrees/diplomas of course with no class-work.
On noticing sham institutes as a mode of easy earning , hundreds of institutes got established in nook and corner of the State where simply the degrees of course were sold to purchasers coming from outside the State in bulk and this all went on unabated and unchecked by any authority concerned and ultimately led to a huge scam of its times.
It was only in the year 2010 that the scam was exposed by A K Sen Committee, which found these institutes existing only on papers with no students, classwork, staff or infrastructure in place. While unveiling the nexus between concerned Board authorities and owners, the committee observed that they have to take a biting pill whenever they visited any such institute. Same got fortified by the one man committee report which revealed some startling facts about the illegal functioning of so called institutes.
Based on reports, Crime Branch Srinagar and Jammu registered FIRs at their respective police stations and investigation ensued. Based on the investigation, instant charge sheet was filed in this court in the year 2015 against Bashir Ahmed Dar, the then Director Academics and owners of five institutes out of 22 which got established in the first instance and laid the foundation of the scam.
Earlier after hearing the parties on the stage of charge, the court didn’t feel convinced with the findings made in the charge sheet and accordingly directed further investigation in the case vide its order dated 11.1.2023 to be conducted by a SIT headed by IPS officer.
Though catena of directions were given in the order of further investigation to be completed within a period of two months yet SIT except of filing supplementary charge sheet against the then Chairman, BOSE M A Charoo failed to address the issues highlighted in the order of further investigation till date irrespective of the fact that more than a year has passed since then.
The court observed, “what was expected from an IPS officer for ensuring prompt and effective investigation proved to be a hoax”. However, on account of long pendency of the matter for the last 9 years at the stage of charge, the court heard the matter and based on the material before it ordered framing of charges against the accused.
Moreover, court while exercising powers under Section 190 CrPC arrayed similarly circumstanced left out owners out of 22 illegal ETT institutes as the accused in the case and issued bailable warrants for their appearance before the court on the next date—June 3.
The left out owners of illegally established ETT institutes, who stand arrayed as accused, are Parkash Sharma of Samba, Suman Gupta of Trikuta Nagar, A K Dewani of Naseeb Nagar, Pankaj Dogra of Kathua, Zulfikar Ali Chowdhury, Dr Arun Gupta, Ved Parkash of Kunjwani, Daljeet Singh of Gandhi Nagar, Kishore Kumar of Kathua , Swami Parmanand Saraswati of Kathua, Anu Gupta of Samba, Parshotam Dass Sharma of Rajouri, Gandharb Singh of Kathua, Balwant Raj Luthra of Kachi Chawni, Prof Nihal Singh of Karan Nagar, Nirlip Kour of Gandhi Nagar and Nirmaljit Singh of Gangyal.
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