Court orders framing of charges against Tripura ex-Secretary, 4 others

A Delhi court recently ordered framing of charges against a former Secretary to the Chief Minister of Tripura for alleged irregularities in allocating MBBS seats in 1990-91.

Special Judge Vinod Goel took cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the Special Branch of CBI and ordered framing of charges against Amal Kumar Roy.It also ordered framing of charges against four others – Geeti Puri, Rupa Ghosh, Uday Shankar Sharma and Kumari Kriti for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with Roy and by “illegal means” to secure admission in the medical college.

The agency alleged that Roy, in his then capacity as Secretary “abused” his official position as public servant by “dishonestly” and “fraudulently” issuing nomination letters in favour of Geeti Puri, Rupa Ghosh, Uday Shankar Sharma and Kumari Kriti, inspite of their being not eligible for admission in MBBS course in the medical colleges in Tripura.

The court ordered framing of charges against them under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (breach of trust) and 471 (conspiracy for cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and certain sections of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988, on the order of the Gauhati High Court.

The court had on January 28, this year, already framed charges against former Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Rasheed Masood and two senior government officials of the Tripura Government, Gurdial Singh and Sachidananda Dwivedi.

The CBI also alleged that a Deputy Secretary in the Union Health Ministry wrote a letter addressed to the Secretary for allocating three additional MBBS seats in 1990-91 to the Tripura Government, the charge-sheet said.

A letter was also endorsed to the Resident Commissioner of the Tripura Government, requesting him for additional allocation of seats in some medical colleges.

However, on August 24, 1994, the Central Government made it very clear that the Health Ministry had never been issued any such letter and claimed that the letters were fake.

“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the contentions raised by the accused persons can be well appreciated only after the evidence is led by the parties.

“However, on the basis of material evidence placed before me by the prosecution, a strong prima-facie case is made out against the five accused persons Amal Kumar Roy, Geeti Puri, Rupa Ghosh, Uday Shankar Sharma and Kumari Kriti,” the Judge said in his order.

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