Senior education officer comes under ACB scanner……..Jyoti Shelar
A senior official of the state education board is under the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) scanner following the arrest of a dentist who had allegedly accepted bribe on her behalf.
The ACB is likely to question the senior official soon.
“We are interrogating dentist Suresh Devappa Suvarna further. We will also question senior education board official Basanti Roy and other board authorities. Further action will be initiated if their involvement is found,” said assistant commissioner of police BM Deshmukh.
The ACB arrested a dentist on Tuesday while accepting bribe of Rs1 lakh from a school principal, who is facing an inquiry by the board after her son was caught copying in the SSC examination in March.
ACB officials said the complainant, Anjali Patil, is the principal of Paranjpe Vidyalaya in Andheri (east). Her son Sanket had dropped out while in class VII on medical grounds. He directly appeared for the SSC exams in March. Incidentally, he got Paranjpe Vidyalaya as the exam centre. Patil’s son was caught copying in the exam.
The examiner took up the matter with higher authorities, stating that the boy’s mother was the school principal. The board authorities then began an inquiry.
Consequently, Patil went to meet state board secretary Basanti Roy in her office. After failing to meet her there, Patil went to her residence in Gamdevi.
“In her statement, Patil said that Roy introduced her to dentist Suresh Devappa Suvarna and asked her to communicate with him,” said Deshmukh.
Suvarna allegedly told Patil that he was close to Roy and other board authorities and would help get the inquiry dropped. He asked her to pay Rs 1.65 lakh. “Patil paid the money to Suvarna on June 11,” said Deshmukh.
However, last month Patil received a notice from the board saying she was suspended. She asked Suvarna why she received the notice despite paying him the amount. Suvarna told her the amount was not enough to “manage” the board authorities and that she will have to pay up Rs1 lakh more.
Patil did not intend to pay more, and she lodged a complaint with the ACB. The bureau laid a trap at Suvarna’s bungalow in Gamdevi and arrested him while accepting the bribe.
Basanti Roy claimed that the complainant had distorted the facts. Speaking to DNA on Wednesday, Roy said, “Patil’s son appeared for his board exams and our examiner found out that there was an extra answer sheet attached to his paper without a supervisor’s signature. It was Patil who attached the extra answer sheet to her son’s answer booklet. The answer sheet carried 25 marks,” said Roy.
“After this the board initiated the inquiry. However, Patil and her husband, an RTO officer, began approaching me asking to be lenient,” said Roy.
According to Roy, after paying several visits to the office, Patil finally found out her residence and then got in touch with Suvarna.
“Despite getting negative response from me, they sent Suvarna to my house with the money. My family members told Suvarna not to bother us anymore. Suvarna went down and that’s when the ACB officers arrested him,” Roy said.