As another eye-opener, one Shukdev Mandal  in  Saraiyahat, of Dumka District , Jharkhand,who worked as a government teacher for a long period of 36 years on fake matriculation has been punished by the Court after a long  trial that took twelve years.

Mandal has been sentenced imprisonment for a period of 12 years and fined Rs. 50 lacs failing which the imprisonment will get extended by another six months.

The matriculation certificate of Mandal  was of 1968 and in reality carried the name of someone else.
The enquiry against  the former was started by the Block Education Officer(BEO).

The BEO’s report was submitted to the District Education Officer(DEO) on whose instruction the Block Development Officer (BDO)of Saraiyahat lodged an FIR in August ,2011,against Mandal.

The guilty teacher Mandal who has since retired but continued to enjoy all the post-retirement benefits due to a teacher of his rank,has now been asked to deposit all the amounts received from the Department in Deoghar Treasury within one month.

The present case further strengthens the widely held apprehension that a large number of assistant teachers who are employed as “para-teachers” in Jharkhand might have submitted fake certificates for recruitment.

It is also presumed that such submission of fake certificates is done in collusion with the insiders taking undue advantage of the administrative weakness of the system.

Inquiry revealed that many para teachers have resigned on being asked for certificates.There are still others para teachers whose certificates are being verified by the department.

It is expected that the Department will unearth such recruitments based on fake certificates expeditiously.