Hearing on the scholarship scam estimated to be involving about Rs 500 crore, the Uttarakhand high court directed the state government to appoint another officer as the head of Special Investigation Team (SIT) in place of Manjunath TC to probe the case. Manjunath TC had submitted in the HC that the court had earlier ordered that he remain the SIT chief till the investigation is completed. Stating that he had been probing the case for four years, he requested that the court withdraw its earlier order as it was preventing his promotion and depriving him of all the promotion benefits. Amending its earlier orders, the HC directed the state government to appoint another SIT chief in place of Manjunath TC. The matter was taken up for hearing by the division bench of chief justice RS Chauhan and justice NS Dhanik. It will be recalled that Dehradun resident Ravinder Jugran and others had filed a PIL in the HC stating that a scam in scholarships of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students was being orchestrated in the state since 2005 and amounted to more than Rs 500 crore. The petitioners have sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
