Vigilance Bureau arrests five officials of education dept for misappropriation of recruitment record

Chandigarh May 9, 2023:  The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) during its ongoing campaign against corruption in the state, on Tuesday arrested five officials of Punjab education department for committing irregularities and misappropriation in safekeeping of official record pertaining to recruitment of about 9998 posts of ETT/JBT/Teaching Fellows in 2007. The Mohali court has granted three days police remand of all the accused to the VB to investigate the said accused further.
 
Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of VB informed that following investigations of a vigilance enquiry against officers/employees of department of School Education, Punjab, the Bureau has registered a case FIR No 18, dated 08-05-2023 under sections 409, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of IPC and 7 (13) (1) (A), 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act at VB police station, Flying Squad-1, Punjab at Mohali.

He added that in this case all accused officials namely Manjit Singh, Junior Assistant, Mohinder Singh, Senior Assistant, Dharampal, Senior Assistant (All retired), from the District Education Office (DEO) Elementary, Ludhiana, Narinder Kumar, Junior Assistant and Mitar Vasu, Senior Assistant in DEO (Elementary), Gurdaspur have been arrested.

Giving details he further informed that during the probe it was found that these officials remained posted in DEO (Elementary) Ludhiana and Gurdaspur at different times and were responsible for the safe and secure custody of recruitment record such as Check Lists, Merit Lists, Scrutiny lists, Experience Certificates, Final Selection/Merit lists of the candidates who had applied for about 9998 posts of ETT/JBT/ Teaching Fellows in 2007. However, these officials, in connivance with the officers of the Education Department, had committed irregularities/ misappropriation in safekeeping of this record, adding he said after complaints of submission of bogus documents including forged experience certificates by many of the selected candidates surfaced, the said accused failed to submit/present the requisite record under their safe custody either to the departmental committee appointed for the purpose or to the VB. On the basis of enquiry these accused officials have been arrested in this case. They will be produced in the competent court of Mohali to seek police remand while the role of officers/officials who remained posted during this selection process,  would also be investigated thoroughly in accordance with law, he added.