Thiruvananthapuram: The Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation here has sentenced imprisonment for three people, including two former education department officials, over the question paper printing scam that took place in 2002.

The three sentenced are former Deputy Director of the Education Department V Sanu, Pareeksha Bhavan former Secretary S Ravindran and a printing press employee Annamma Chacko.

The second accused Annamma Chacko was sentenced to five years of imprisonment. The fourth accused Ravindran and the sixth accused Sanu were sentenced to four years of imprisonment.

Each of the convicts will have to pay an amount of Rs 12.5 lakh as fine.

The case

As per the case, the accused caused a loss of Rs 1.33 crore to the State exchequer by aiding a private printing press to get out-of-turn contracts for printing question papers for academic examinations, including that for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC), from the year 2002.

There were totally nine accused in the printing scam. But the first accused and General Manager of the Vishwanathan Press Rajan Chacko, the third accused and the owner of the press Subramaniyan, the fifth accused and Pareeksha Bhavan former Superintendent C P Vijayan Nair and seventh accused and Pareeksha Bhavan former clerk Ajith Kumar died before the completion of the trial.

CBI charges

The CBI, in its chargesheet, had said that the accused cheated the State Government by conniving with the private parties by granting an out-of-turn contract for a benami company, which was jointly formed by various companies which got the question paper printing work in previous years.    

The CBI took over the investigation of the case from the State Crime Branch when the SSLC question paper leak rocked the State in 2005.

In 2007, the CBI submitted separate chargesheets in the court with regard to the question paper leak case and the question paper printing scam case.

Later, the accused Bindu Vijayan and Sindhu Rajendran were sentenced to six years of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 30,000 respectively in the question paper leak case by the Special CBI Court in 2011.

What are CBI courts?

CBI courts are district-level courts that handle cases specially dealt with by the CBI. CBI Courts are established under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.  There is no special provision for CBI courts under the Code of Criminal Procedure.