The Delhi High Court on Wednesday extended by a week the parole granted to IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar, convicted and sentenced to 10-year jail term in the case of illegal recruitment of junior basic teachers (JBTs) in Haryana.
Justice Vinod Goel granted relief to Kumar, who said he needed to be out on parole to finalise a match for the marriage of his daughter. Kumar, who argued in person, was earlier granted parole for a month till Friday by the High Court and sought extension of the relief by four weeks.
‘Whistle-blower’
Submitting that he had found a match for his 31-year-old daughter, who is scheduled to return from London on Friday, Kumar said he was hopeful her marriage would be finalised. He added that he was a whistle-blower and complainant in the JBT scam case but had been incarcerated instead.
The court noted that last month too the officer had been granted parole to undertake an exam and negotiate his daughter’s marriage.
Kumar, former Haryana Chief Minister O. P. Chautala and 53 others were convicted and sentenced in the case of illegal recruitment of 3,206 JBTs in 2000. Kumar, the then Director of Primary Education in Haryana, had initially exposed the scam after he filed a plea in the Supreme Court. His involvement in the scam was discovered later during a CBI probe.
Kumar, O. P. Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and the others were convicted and sentenced to varying jail terms in the case by a Special CBI court in January 2013. Apart from the Chautalas and Kumar, Chautala’s former Officer on Special Duty Vidya Dhar and political adviser to then Haryana CM Sher Singh Badshami were also given 10-year jail terms. The others who were given 10-year jail terms are Madan Lal Kalra, Durga Dutt Pradhan, Bani Singh, Ram Singh and Daya Saini. One convict was handed a five-year jail sentence and the remaining accused were given four-year terms. Of the 55 convicts, 16 are women officials.