JBT scam: HC seeks CBI reply on two convicts' plea against conviction

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today sought a response from CBI on the bail pleas of two persons who were sentenced, along with former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, in a teacher recruitment scam case, challenging their conviction and jail term awarded to them. Pushkar Mal Verma, Chairman of district-level selection committee from Mahendergarh and Nirmal Devi, a member of the district-level selection committee from Rohtak, constituted to recruit teachers in Haryana, moved the court also seeking suspension of their sentence and release on bail. The trial court had awarded five years jail to Verma and four years imprisonment to Devi. [caption id=“attachment_613393” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chautala and his son were also convicted in the case. AFP[/caption] On their plea challenging the conviction, Justice Mukta Gupta asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file the reply by 2 April. A CBI court had last month sentenced 78-year-old Chautala, his son 51-year-old Ajay Chautala and 53 others, including two IAS officers, in connection with the scam. On 16 January, the court had convicted them under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 418 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of the IPC and sections 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act for the illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic trained (JBT) teachers. Chautalas, and eight others, including the IAS officers, were handed down 10 years in jail. One accused (Verma) in the case was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail while 44 others got four years’ imprisonment. The scam took place between 1999 and 2000, when Chautala was Haryana chief minister. Over 3,000 teachers were to be recruited in the state and Chautala had pressurised a senior official, Sanjiv Kumar, to change the list of selected candidates by fudging the marks of certain favourites. PTI