Principal held accepting bribe

On May 19, a ninth standard boy (name withheld) from the school had approached the principal along with his mother to find out why he had still not received his marksheet of the final exams conducted early this year.

The principal reportedly told the mother that her son had failed in the exams. But there was apparently a way out the principal matter-of-factly asked the student to pay her Rs 12,000 in cash if he wished to be promoted.

“Hiding their shock and amazement on getting such an offer, that too from the head of the institute, the mother-son duo quietly stepped out of her officeafter nodding their heads in approval. And they soon got in touch with the ACB for help,” ACB head-constable Baburao Khandale said.

He said the principal had instructed the mother-son duo that the boy would get his original marksheet by post, but if they coughed up Rs 12,000, the result would be altered by the school to promote him to class ten.

At around 8 pm on Monday, the mother and son went to the principal’s residence along with the amount demanded. But the notes had been marked by the ACB, and the police had laid an elaborate trap to catch the principal red-handed.

However, ACB officials added the principal was not immediately arrested on Monday evening because the rules don’t permit females to be taken into police custody in the night. “However, according to the procedure, summons will be issued to her and she will be produced before the Esplanade Court at Azad Maidan soon,” said Khandale.

This is the second case booked by the ACB this year involving educational malpractices. In the firstcase, the ACB had arrested the chairman of a Govandi school for accepting donation at the time of admission on May 28.

Lauding ACB’s efforts, Minister of State for Education Anil Deshmukh said: “I will be opening a vigilance cell in Mantralaya during the admission season, so that parents and students can register their grievances.”