APSC cash-for-job scam: Supreme Court refuses to quash re-investigation
13 of the accused had moved a special leave petition in the apex court against the high court order & resultant re-investigation.;
A file image of Supreme Court of India (Photo: IANS)
Guwahati, May 23: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a special leave petition filed by a group of accused in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) cash-for-job scam challenging a judgement of the Gauhati High Court which had upheld the 14th supplementary chargesheet filed by the SIT.
The newly constituted SIT had filed three chargesheets in the scam – 12th, 13th and 14th. At least 32 accused were not named in the 13th chargesheet and the court of Special Judge had directed further investigation by a new investigating officer (IO).
In the 14th chargesheet, IO Upen Kalita – who replaced Prateek Thube on the directions of the court – named 14 accused in the ‘non-chargesheeted category’.
The Special Court, however, took cognizance of offence against the 14 left-out accused.
The re-investigation and cognizance taken by the Special Court was challenged in the High Court by the accused, but it was dismissed.
Thirteen of the accused – Nandini Kakati, Akashee Duwarah, Rumir Timungpi, Dhrubajyoti Hatibaruah, Hitesh Mazumdar, Kula Pradip Bhattacharyya, Faruk Ahmed, Kalyan Kumar Das, Anal Jyoti Das, Bikash Sarma, Jayanta Doley, Priyanka Deka and Saurav Pran Sharma – had moved a special leave petition in the apex court against the high court order and resultant re-investigation.
A Supreme Court bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Rajesh Bindal dismissed the petition on Thursday.
The 13 petitioners who had approached the Supreme Court are accused of illegal enhancement of marks in the final tabulation sheets – in the range of 90 to 292 – and their names also feature in the 9-page tabulation sheet which was seized by the investigating agency from the possession of Rakesh Paul, the then chairman of APSC.
By
Staff Reporter