Correspondent
SHILLONG, NOV 2: The Supreme Court has issued notices to former Meghalaya Education Minister Dr. Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh and two retired senior bureaucrats after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenged a Meghalaya High Court order quashing criminal proceedings against them in the 2008 lower primary school teachers’ recruitment scam.
The notices were issued following a hearing on the CBI’s special leave petition (criminal), which questioned the High Court’s decision to terminate the trial despite an earlier direction for a CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in the recruitment process, an official said on Monday.
The other two accused are former Director of Elementary and Mass Education J.D. Sangma and former Deputy Director Ameka I. Lyngdoh.
The case relates to alleged irregularities in the 2008 recruitment of assistant teachers for lower primary schools across Shillong, Jowai, Amlarem, Tura and Dadenggre. The scandal affected more than 500 applicants, with the selection of 246 candidates subsequently flagged as tainted.
The CBI, in its petition, questioned why the High Court had quashed the FIR and entire criminal proceedings without calling for the trial court records. It also argued that the High Court could have considered alternatives, including directing the lower court to expedite the trial or reduce the number of witnesses without compromising the proceedings.
The allegation against Ampareen Lyngdoh was that she had allegedly misused her ministerial influence by providing slips to officials preparing tabulation sheets, directing them to alter the marks of candidates. On September 4, 2024, the Meghalaya High Court, through a single bench headed by then Chief Justice I.P. Mukerji, quashed the criminal proceedings against all three accused. The court held that the prosecution had failed to establish even a prima facie case against them.
The High Court observed that there was no document on record showing interpolation or the use of white ink to erase marks, nor sufficient evidence linking the alleged slips to manipulation of examination results. It also expressed concern over the prolonged trial, noting that examination of all prosecution witnesses could take the remaining lifetime of the accused.
The court had invoked Sections 227 and 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to set aside the Special Judge (CBI)’s August 23, 2022, order and discharge the accused.
However, the CBI challenged the verdict, maintaining that its chargesheet contained evidence of mark manipulation, including the alleged use of white ink on score sheets. It further pointed out that the trial was already underway after the Special CBI Court rejected the accused’s discharge pleas in 2022.
The FIR was initially registered in 2011, following which the investigation was conducted by the state police before being transferred to the CBI. The central agency registered its case in 2018 and filed a chargesheet in June 2020 under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and destruction of evidence.
The prosecution had initially listed more than 300 witnesses, later reduced to 181, of whom only 28 had been examined before the High Court quashed the proceedings.