Holding that the orders by the chief judicial magistrate were “illegal”, the special court for CBI on Tuesday declared that three of the accused in the admission scam for admission in Punjab Engineering College (PEC) which had hit headlines in October 2010, should be tried as adults. Accused Lovkesh Bhayana, Yogesh Bhayana and Garvit Nain were declared as juveniles in July last year by the court where the case is being heard.
The order by the court of Additional District and Sessions Jugde Vimal Kumar reads that when the offence came to light on October 14, 2010, the accused were already adults and the Juvenile Jusitce Act was no longer applicable. Therefore, in view of the above circumstances of the case, the impugned orders dated July 15,2014, were held as “illegal”.
The charges were framed against the three by the Juvenile Justice Board of Chandigarh in March 2013, after the challan was submitted on April 18, 2011.
The scam unfolded when six students who had taken admission in Punjab Engineering College (PEC) in September 2010, were charged with forgery and use of original documents for purposes of cheating. The alleged kingpin of the operation were Dr Nishikant and Mahinder Bajaj, who had moved an application in the court of ADSJ Vimal Kumar in October last year, and the same was allowed on Tuesday.
Nishikant and Mahinder had been forging documents and making identity cards of Nepal and Bhutan for students students seeking admission in PEC. They charged between Rs 10-15 lakh from each student.
Nishikant is a PhD in Chemistry and also worked with CBSE. Bajaj is a resident of Hisar and a dental technician. Another accused, Kishore Yadav, was arrested by the CBI in January 2013 and was released on bail. The CBI had detected the fraud on September 8, 2010, when 11 students were booked.
Indian Express | January 22, 2015
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