JBT scam: HC seeks CBI response on Vidya Dhar's plea

The Delhi high court on Friday sought CBI's response on the plea of Indian Administrative Service officer Vidya Dhar, awarded 10 years imprisonment along with former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala in the Junior Basic Trained teachers scam, against his conviction and jail term.

Issuing notice to CBI, Justice Mukta Gupta asked the agency to file its reply by April 5 on Dhar's appeal as well his plea for bail on medical grounds.

The court also asked the jail authorities to place on record the convict's medical reports on the next date of hearing. Dhar, currently lodged in Tihar Jail, was Chautala's officer on special duty when the JBT teachers scam took place in 2000.

The trial court on January 16, had convicted 55 persons, including the Chautalas and Dhar, in the JBT scam case. Besides Dhar, O P Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and the then Director of Primary Education Sanjiv Kumar, also an IAS officer, have also moved the high court against the trial court's order of conviction and sentence.

Apart from these four, the trial court on January 22 had sentenced six others, including Chautala's former political advisor Sher Singh Badshami, to 10 years imprisonment in the case.

Of the remaining 45 convicts, one has been handed five years and the rest 44 were given four years imprisonment.