VELLORE : Five days after a woman was arrested for forging an appointment letter to take up the position of a school teacher at government school in Vandavasi, a graduate assistant teacher at government high school in Vilai near Arani was suspended by the Tiruvannamalai Chief Education Officer (CEO) for his alleged involvement in the scam.
The suspended teacher – Chakkarapani – teaches Tamil and is on a deputation from Villupuram district since 2011. The suspension follows complaints filed by four private school teachers – Vasantha from Villupuram, Gandhimathi from The Nilgiris, Ravishankar from Arani and Pandurangan from Kalasapakkam, accusing Chakkarapani of receiving cash between Rs 1.5 and Rs 3.5 lakh to obtain government jobs. Tiruvannamalai CEO V Jayakumar has forwarded the complaint to Superintendent of Police R Ponni for pursuing further action.
The scam came to light on March 28, when A Maheswari from Chennai was caught red-handed by school authorities when she presented her forged appointment letter to take up the position of teacher.
A Maheswari and her brother Rajasekaran were arrested by Vandavasi South Police and remanded in jail.
She told police that she had paid Rs 3.5 lakh to Chakkarapani for obtaining the letter.
Education Department sources asserted that Chakkarapani would have colluded with a few more school teachers to create forged letters after discovering loopholes in verification methods in the appointment of government teachers.
About a month ago, acting on a secret complaint, Tiruvannamalai CEO conducted a cross verification of documents, which revealed that three assistant graduate teachers – C Muthulakshmi, C Punithavathi and S Vijayakumar joined after forging appointment letters.
Sakthivel, headmaster (in-charge) at Avaniyapuram government school near Peramanallur, has also been suspended for his alleged involvement in the scam. Sakthivel is the husband of Muthulakshmi.
Search is on for Muthulakshmi, Punithavathi, Vijayakumar, Sakthivel and Chakkarapani as they went absconding since the scam was busted.