Date:22/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/22/stories/2007082257280300.htm

Other States - Orissa

Hearing in marks case begins today

Correspondent

CUTTACK: The Cuttack Sadar Court of SDJM will begin hearing into a case filed against the former School and Mass Education Minister, Bishnu Charan Das, and Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy from Wednesday.

Mr. Das quit the State Cabinet last week in the wake of raging controversy over alleged discrepancies in the matriculation marks of his son in the 2007 examination.

An advocate from Puri Priyadarshan Patnaik filed a case against Mr. Das, Mr. Tripathy and the staff of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) that conducts the matriculation examination. The court, after admitting the case under Section 156 (3) of the Cr.PC, fixed Wednesday for the hearing.

The complainant said in his petition that he had filed an FIR against all the accused persons at the Managalabag police station in the city and alleged that the police took no action. The petitioner further alleged that the former Minister made a criminal conspiracy along with the staff of the BSE to increase the marks of his son in as many as five subjects.

“The BSE staff directly helped the former Minister in the forgery act with an ulterior motive,” the petitioner alleged.

The petitioner further charged the senior IAS officer, while probing the entire matter, with causing disappearance of evidences with the intention of protecting the former Minister.

Report submitted

Special Correspondent adds from Bhubaneswar: Mr. Tripathy, who conducted a probe into the tampering of matriculation marks, submitted his findings to the government on Tuesday evening.

The findings were being studied and any action on the issue would be taken on Wednesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told presspersons after Mr. Tripathy submitted his report.