The special CBI court that sentenced the Chautalas to jail has asked the CBI to start investigation into the selection of teachers under the Haryana Directorate of Secondary Education where the same modus operandi of replacement of original lists by fake ones is alleged to have happened after some evidence to this effect emerged during trial.
The judge also suggested that the candidates who won the junior basic trained (JBT) jobs through the scam should not be allowed to remain in service and candidates who lost out should now find place in the merit list.
The judge also asked the CBI to inquire into the alleged role of Deputy Commissioners and Sub-Divisional Magistrates in “actively compelling” the 50 convicted chairpersons and members of district-level selection committees to sign affidavits that were part of a reply filed by the Haryana Government in the Supreme Court which had taken up the case.
On O. P. Chautala who sought leniency citing old age and ailments and his son Ajay who said their political careers have suffered because of the conviction, the court said: “The enormity of the offences under consideration can be appreciated from the fact that the conspiracy in question took in its sweep almost all the districts of Haryana. As many as 57 chairpersons and members of 18 district committees were made to create forged award lists in which the interview marks of about 8,000 candidates were changed…The gravity of the offences enhances in view of the brazenness with which the sacrosanct constitutional guarantee of equal opportunity in the matters of public employment to each citizen of India has been violated.”
