'Is Sanjiv Kumar a whistleblower? The answer is yes and no'

How CBI special judge Vinod Kumar viewed the roles of O P Chautala, Ajay Chautala and IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar in Haryana teachers recruitment scam, for which he later sentenced them to jail. Excerpts from his judgment finding them guilty

Sanjiv Kumar, an IAS officer, claims to be a whistleblower. He filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court alleging that while he was posted as director, primary education, Haryana, he was pressurised by Om Prakash Chautala, then chief minister of Haryana, to replace the original award lists prepared for selection of JBT teachers with fake award lists... Kumar produced a set of 15 award lists duly signed by members of the selection committees and submitted that these fake lists were to (replace) the original lists and when he refused to do this illegal act, an FIR and various departmental inquiries were initiated against him. Kumar claimed that despite such pressure, he implemented the original award lists and declared the results, which antagonised Om Prakash Chautala and his political and bureaucratic colleagues. He prayed (for) a CBI investigation...

Kumar handed over one set of interview lists of Kaithal and a part-list of Kurukshetra to the CBI. The 15 lists filed by Kumar in Supreme Court and (the lists) given by him to the CBI will be referred to hereinafter as Supreme Court lists.

During investigations, the CBI collected the award lists of 18 districts from the office of the director, primary education. These lists will now be referred to as directorate lists...

The two lists

Rajni Shekri Sibal, IAS, took over as director, primary education (on April 27, 2000)... It is alleged that she was asked to change the award lists. As per the prosecution, Sibal received an anonymous phone call and she was offered a 5 per cent share of the collected money to agree to the proposal. Subsequently, her house was also burgled. It is alleged that to ensure the safety of the award lists received from 18 district primary education officers, she wrapped the almirah containing the said award lists in four metres of cloth and sealed it using a one-rupee coin...

... contd.

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