A local court here on Friday extended the police remand of former Technical Education Minister laxmikant Sharma till June 24. Earlier, he was sent to police remand for four days that expired on Friday.
Special Task Force (STF) wanted to cross check the details found in the investigation by confronting other prime accused in the case. The court accepted the demand but after reprimanding and questioning the STF officials about the sluggish pace of investigation.
lamxikant Sharma is accused in the Contractual teacher 2 and 3 category examination scam. The STF requested for remand till June 25 as former exam controller of the MP Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) PankaljTrivedi and Sharma's OSD OP Shukla were to be confronted to check the information provided by them.
After producing in the court when laxmikant Sharma was taken outside the court where the media persons asked him as whom he was attempting to save by not replying to the queries posed by the STF and he replied that he was not trying to save anyone and is cooperating with the STF in the investigations.
During the investigation, STF has found a list of suspects in the hard disk recovered from former chief system analyst Nitin Mahendra and the list consists of around 451 accused.
Meanwhile, DGP Nandan Dube told media persons that the students who have been arrested by the STF are those, who had given fake addresses in the examination forms.
Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who was in Shivpuri on Friday, told media persons that laxmikant Sharma is trying to save other three ministers who are involved in the scam. However, he declined to reveal those three names stating that the STF officials know them.
Meanwhile, the case took a political turn after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan summoned Chief Secretary Antony DeSa and DGP Nandan Dube on Friday asking about the arrest of students from different parts of the State.
This gave a point to the Congress party that raised question mark on the review of the situation by the Chief Minister stating that by interfering the investigation process, Chouhan was trying to influence the investigation being conducted on the directives of the High Court.
leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Satyadev Katare on Friday criticised Chouhan's interference in STF investigation alleging that that he should not interfere in the investigation as allegations against CM have also been raised about being aware of the MPPEB examination scams.
Katare further added that the review of the investigation is erroneous, illegal and against the rules and regulations. Congress believes that Chief Minister is trying to pressurise the STF to avoid investigation against him and his close aids in future.
Expecting that High Court would take cognisance of the act of Chouhan, Katare stated that soon action might be taken against him.