Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

CBI closes case against ex-RRB Chairman

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE APRIL 3. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed allegations of corruption and irregularities in recruitments against the former Chairman of the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), Mohammed Shafi, has closed the case stating that "evidence gathered during investigation was not sufficient to launch prosecution against the accused".

A `B' report filed by the CBI's Deputy Superintendent of Police, K.Y. Guruprasad, before the 21st Additional City Civil and Sessions (Special) Judge Court seeking permission to close the case was accepted by the court here on Tuesday.

The CBI had filed an FIR on April 15, 1997 against Mr. Shafi and four others.

The CBI had maintained that the accused during 1995-96 had selected candidates of their choice for the posts of junior clerk-cum-typist and flouted the procedures of the RRB. It was stated in the FIR that a sum of Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 80,000 was collected by the accused from each of the selected candidates.

"A lot of applications received by the RRB were missing and the postal orders sent by the candidates along with these applications were encashed by Mr. Shafi and others."

Further, the work of printing the question papers was entrusted to Sudhindra Printing Press, Malleswaram, of which Gajaraj Yadava, also named an accused, was the supervisor, without calling tenders, the CBI had charged.

There was no typing test for the post though a typing speed of 30 words per minute in English was a qualification.

The manual random check was not conducted by the RRB officials to ensure the correctness of computer evaluation, and there was no signature of supervisors or assistant supervisors in the answer sheets of the roll numbers starting 01152101 to 01152200, the FIR had said.

In the `B' report filed before the court on October 16, 2001, the CBI said that during investigation, the selected and non-selected candidates had denied having paid money to the accused.

"All the relevant documents were collected and witnesses concerned were examined, besides the interrogation of the accused. The opinion of handwriting experts from the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents (GEQD), Hyderabad, was obtained on suspected alterations made in some answer sheets. However, GEQD failed to give any specific opinion."

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had also earlier advised against dropping the case against Mr. Shafi, the CBI told the court.

The CBI designated court on Tuesday accepted the `B' report.

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