HP school board chief, son booked for cheating
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 15
On the directions of a local court, HP School Education Board Chairman B.R. Rahi and his son Vivek Rahi were yesterday booked by the Hamirpur police on charges of cheating, intimidation and criminal conspiracy.

In his statement to the police, complainant Dalip Kumar had alleged that he had given Rs 1 lakh to National Career Institute, Hamirpur, run by Vivek Rahi to help him get admission to an MBA course in Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, but only Rs 64,450 were deposited in the college by way of fee.

SP, Hamirpur, Daljeet Thakur told The Tribune that according to the complainant, Vivek Rahi had taken Rs 1 lakh as fee for the two-year course and assured him of no further payments.

But after the admission, the complainant was asked to pay another Rs 20,000 and the same amount for the second year. Consequently, he had to leave the course.

The complainant, he said, approached the court seeking registration of a case against B.R. Rahi and his son and demanding a refund of Rs 1 lakh.

The same allegations had earlier been investigated into twice, following directions from the Governor and later from a committee of the state government, but these could not be proved.

However, B.R. Rahi today termed it a “political conspiracy” to tarnish his image as Chairman of the board.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Rahi said his son was manager of a consultancy wing of the National Career Institute, which was approached by Dalip Kumar.

“He came to our house one evening and insisted to give a sum of Rs 1 lakh as fee, even though my son was not at home. Considering it wasn’t safe for him to carry the money back with him, I gave him a receipt for Rs 1 lakh and next day the amount was formally passed on to the coordinator of the institute,” he claimed.

Mr Rahi added that Dalip Kumar was taken to Bangalore and the entire expenditure in facilitating the admission was borne by the institute (run by his son). Besides Rs 65,450 as fee, the rest of the money was spent on related expenses, for which the institute had documents to prove.

On August 9, 2002, an MBA seat was made available to him but even before the first semester could be completed, Dalip Kumar left the course without informing them, he added.

“In response to our query, the Department of Management Studies of the college clarified on November 4, 2004 by way of letter that he had discontinued due to personal reasons,” he claimed.

But it was in July, 2004 that Dalip Kumar sent a letter to the managers of the institute asking for refund of the fee, as he had dropped out of the course.

Mr Rahi said: “First of all, the fee deposited with the college cannot be refunded. Secondly, he raised the issue after two years because I had taken over as Chairman of the board and my rivals wanted to tarnish my image by using this case to their convenience.”

The law, he said, must take its own course and he would cooperate in the proceedings.

Meanwhile, BJP’s media in-charge Rajinder Rana has demanded a CBI inquiry into the case. He however feared that since Mr Rahi was close to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the government would turn a blind eye to the case and give him a clean chit.

Shimla, July 15
Even as a final decision by the high court regarding further course of action in the HP-PMT case is still awaited, the fact that some of the students to whom the paper was allegedly leaked were called to a hill station in Uttaranchal two days before the examination gives enough reason to believe that it was rigged.

Sources said though the three-member police team did not look into the criminality of the case certain facts that came to the fore during investigation point towards the involvement of a mafia having local links in various states.

The sources said some men involved in this racket had worked in close association with Rajesh Don from Bihar, who two years back had been involved in the CBSE medical exam paper leak, investigated by the CBI.

It is learnt that the touts initially got in touch with the candidates and their parents, to whom the paper was leaked through newspaper advertisements.

As per the modus operandi, marksheets of students was asked for before the examination and returned only on payment. The sources said between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 14 lakh could have been paid for the seats, depending on the rank secured.

The marksheets had to be shown to the university authorities at the time of counselling for admission to a medical college.

As per the modus operandi, the question paper is solved before all students, who are asked to come in groups to different venues, giving them no evidence.

In this case also, some students had given the same wrong answers for the same questions, giving reason for doubt.

On Tuesday, the high court would take a decision on the crucial issue of cancellation of the examination and registering a criminal case.

The three-member committee had gone into the details of bank accounts, mobile phone calls and answersheets of some candidates to whom the paper had been allegedly leaked.

Another interesting fact that found mention in the report submitted by the probe committee before the court was that students had opted for examination centres in places outside their places of residence.

It all depended on the court about the further course of action. The probe by the committee also hinted at the involvement of Himachal Pradesh University employees in the racket.

Export allocation to reduced
Our Correspondent

Parwanoo, July 15
The allocation to the state in lieu of exports has been considerably reduced with the export-oriented units failing to account for their production in Himachal Pradesh. While the export collections by the state stand at Rs 1717 crore, the Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics puts this figure at Rs 513 crore.

Urging the industrialists to fill in correct state code in shipping bills, the Industries Minister, Mr Kuldeep Kumar, yesterday urged the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry to play an active role in guiding its members.

He was addressing industrialists at a felicitation meet organised by the PHDCCI at Timber Trail Resorts, near Parwanoo.

Reacting to queries raised by investors, he said the government was seized of the problem of the industrial areas and crores of funds had been allocated under various schemes to raise the requisite infrastructure.

An amount of Rs 30 crore was being spent in the current financial year in this direction. The government was exploring the possibility of setting up a inland container depot at Baddi and the matter had been referred to the infrastructure board for inviting expression of interests. He urged the investors for public-people partnership in carrying out the development of the area.

The Principal Secretary (Industries), Mr Ashok Thakur, while agreeing that power was the biggest constrain for the emerging industries in the Baddi-Nalagrah area, said the matter was looked into on a priority basis.

A member of Himachal Pradesh Electricity Board, Mr D.N.Bansal, said they were committed to provide sufficient power to the industry. He said as much as 430 MVA power had been made available to the region after the industrial package and as many as 1180 commercial connections had been granted. A 66 kv sub-station would be put in place by October, which would provide ample power to the industries, he assured.