CBI probe in JBT scam is fair, no evidence of bias: Court

The court said the probe into the case was fair and there may be "some deficiency" in the investigation, but there was nothing on record to suggest that it was biased.

"In this case, the investigating officer (IO) might have committed some mistakes or at some points there may be some deficiency in the investigation, but, when a case is investigated after three years of the incident, the investigating officer has to work under many limitations.

"However, at the same time I would say that investigation was fair and there is nothing on record that it was biased against any of the accused persons for any reason including the political one," Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar said.

All the 55 accused persons, including Om Prakash Chautala, his MLA-son Ajay Chautala, had alleged that the probe was not fair as there was no mention of the name of former Haryana chief minister even in the FIR.

The court, however, dismissed the defence counsel's contentions saying that, "FIR is not an evidence, rather it is a starting point of the investigation. It appears name of Om Prakash Chautala was not written in the FIR because he was a respectable political leader holding the highest post in the state of Haryana..."

The court convicted all the accused for the offences under various sections of the IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the case relating to illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic trained (JBT) teachers in the state in the year 2000.