NEW DELHI: Four days after the CBI court gave its verdict in the junior basic trained (JBT) teachers' recruitment scam, 50 retired Haryana primary education department employees, who were convicted by the court, and their families are in a state of shock.Having lost the legal battle following the CBI court's conviction, the former government employees of the education department on Saturday pleaded before the court for minimum sentence on medical grounds. The special CBI court in Rohini, Delhi, which is now hearing the arguments on quantum of punishment, which will be announced on January 22. Former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay were convicted by the court in the case on Wednesday.
Family members of the convicted retired staff maintained that the officials would have been subjected to more severe punishments had they refused to carry out the orders issued by Chautala and his associates. The convicted retired officials included former district primary education officers (DPEOs), block education officers (BEO) and senior officials of education department. They were members of the 17 district level selection committees constituted by the education department for recruitment of JBT teachers in 1999-2000.
Majority of those convicted in the case are in their mid 60s and early 70s. Their relatives now insist that compulsion of carrying out the orders issued by superiors became the biggest crime for them. "This is the perfect example as to how a government service can turn out to be a sin. My mother-in-law had served the department for 34 years. Her fault was that she signed the list like others,'' said Krishan Kumar, a resident of Jind whose mother-in-law, Kailash Kaushik, a retired BEO of Jind, has been convicted in the case.
Accompanied by other family members, Krishan had come to see Kailash in the court on Saturday. "Now we expect that the court will give the minimum sentence as members of the committees have been punished for virtually no fault of theirs. Unfortunately, all this has happened despite the fact that none of the members of committees was indicted for monetary or any other gains. Those who gained (the recruited teachers) are still in job,'' said K K Atri, a Panchkula resident and Kailash's brother-in-law.
"What could be worse than this, a person who earned reputation as a teacher is forced to live with hardcore criminals in jail for no fault of theirs,'' another relative of an accused in the case said. Relatives of Ajit Singh Sangwan, a retired DPEO, also echoed the same feeling.
JBT scam: Convicted retired staff & kin in a shock
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JBT scam: Convicted retired staff & kin in a shock
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JBT scam: Convicted retired staff & kin in a shock
