Education officer held in TET scam

Director of secondary education allegedly took money to pass teacher candidates; R49 lakh recovered

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh secondary education director Sanjay Mohan has been arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).

Mohan, who was arrested from his Nishatganj residence in Lucknow late Tuesday, has been alleged to be the kingpin of a racket involved in passing TET candidates for money.

The Ramabai Nagar (Kanpur Dehat) police said it recovered around R49 lakh, which had been collected from TET aspirants, and a huge number of identity cards of candidates from Mohan’s house. Mohan was produced in Kanpur district court on Wednesday. He has since been sent to jail.

The state government, meanwhile, suspended Mohan, following his arrest.

The SP of Ramabai Nagar, Subash Chandra Dubey, said the director was nabbed after 11 people arrested earlier revealed his involvement in the racket. The SP said the director awarded additional marks to candidates for monetary consideration.

Dubey said, “Five persons were arrested in connection with the alleged TET scam on December 31 and R87 lakh recovered from them. Later, six more were arrested in January. More than R5 lakh had been recovered from them.” One of those arrested, Narendra Pratap Singh, is an associate programme coordinator in the secondary education department.

Sources said after the initial arrests in December the state government had asked the Special Task Force to help the Ramabai Nagar police with investigations.

The TET exam was held on November 13, 2011, in which around 11.5 lakh candidates appeared and result was declared on November 26. Around 2.70 lakh candidates cleared the exam but the result was challenged in the Allahabad HC on December 16.

The court had then directed revaluation after removing six questions on which the petitioners had raised an objection. The revaluated result was declared on December 23, 2011.