Mehsana court wants IELTS ‘scam’, reinvestigated by ‘honest, competent officers’ ; Trashes closure report

The order of the Additional Sessions court, dated May 9 and made available on Monday, noted that the previous and original IO, BH Rathod, had filed a “detailed objection and para-wise explanation against the Summary Report of DySP Chauhan and prayed to reject” it, seeking further investigation, when the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court (the trial court in the case) issued a notice to him.

The case pertains to an FIR lodged in September 2022 at the Mehsana City B Division police station — now under the Commissioner of Police, Mehsana — by the then Police Inspector of Special Operations Group (SOG) of the district, Rathod, following a month-long investigation in the alleged racket related to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

The FIR was lodged against 44 accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy, among others.

In its order, the court has noted that the case was transferred for investigation to DySP Chauhan “suddenly, vide an order” dated February 2, 2023, and on April 28, 2023, Chauhan filed a ‘B’ Summary report in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Mehsana, concluding “that there is insufficient evidence against the accused”. The court considered the arguments put forth by the Mehsana District Government Pleader, VB Barot, who emphasised on the objections raised by Rathod and submitted that DySP Chauhan “did not make proper investigation” and that the “learned Chief Judicial Magistrate Mehsana exceeded his jurisdiction by calling upon the (DySP Chauhan) to collect further evidence in support of the summary report”, praying for directions for the investigation to be handed over to “other competent officer”.

The court noted that Advocate RG Goswami, privately engaged by DySP Chauhan, made submissions that the officer had “made detailed investigation and found that there is no sufficient evidence” in support of the alleged IELTS scam.

The court noted that when a trial court makes “jurisdiction error or error of law” in passing an order, the Revisional Court can “interfere in the said order” but “cannot reexamine” the evidence as if it is the proceedings of an appeal.

Sending the case back to the trial court “for passing appropriate order for further investigation”, the Sessions court said that the case should be assigned to “other competent and honest Police officer through the Director General of Police of Gujarat state, who can make detailed and proper investigation in the case.”

During the course of the arguments, Mehsana district government pleader Barot also suggested that the court could also direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the case.

To this, the court order stated, “This Court cannot direct to make investigation of the case by CBI… it is required to be noted that District Government Pleader, representing the Police Agency of State… if he has lost faith in Police agency of the State of Gujarat then that would be a very sorry state of affairs, which needs to be viewed very seriously…”

The court further said, “Having considered the seriousness of offence, which involved illegal migration of youth from State of the Gujarat to the foreign countries without qualifying necessary IELTS Examination and without fulfilling necessary criteria for obtaining visa of foreign countries, the present Revision Application is required to be allowed by sending the case back to the (learned) Trial Court for passing appropriate order of further investigation…”

The court also said that the observations made in the May 9 order were “only for the purpose of deciding the Revision Application” and the Investigating Officer appointed by the DGP shall investigate the case “without being influenced by the observations made in this judgment”.

How the ‘scam’ was unearthed

The racket was allegedly unearthed after six youngsters from Gujarat, who were nabbed by the US border authorities in March 2022 during a foiled attempt to enter the US from Canada, failed to answer basic questions in English, asked by a US judge during a court hearing. It then came to light that the ineligible students had allegedly received help to acquire high scores in the international English proficiency test to travel to Canada on student visas and then try and illegally enter the US.

While four of those six students were from different parts of Mehsana district, two were from Gandhinagar and Patan. The scam was investigated based on a letter from the US Consulate General to the Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, who then sent the communication to then SP Mehsana. Rathod was handed a “confidential investigation”.