Tainted Pathankot school principal made probe officer

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, August 30

Ram Pal, a tainted school principal, who was caught by the Vigilance Bureau in a case of financial embezzlement, has been appointed as an inquiry officer despite the fact that the Vigilance probe is still going on against him.

In November 2022, the Vigilance arrested two principals – Ram Pal and Rakesh Gupta – for raising fake bills of Rs 16.40 lakh during a teachers’ training programme in Gurdaspur and Pathankot in 2016-17.

Dinanagar RTI activist Rajiv and retired Gurdaspur teacher Rajwant Singh were the whistleblowers in the case. Following a complaint, the Ludhiana Vigilance officials pursued the case and finally arrested them.

Subsequently, the Education Department suspended them. At the time of suspension, Ram Pal was working as Principal of the Government Senior Secondary School, Kathlour in Pathankot district.

On August 28, the department not only reinstated him to the same post but also appointed him as an inquiry officer to look into the complaints of employees of the department.

Sources say, “His reinstatement is unethical in nature as he had committed the crime while working at the same post in the same school where he has now been reinstated.”

Both Gupta and Rampal prepared fraudulent invoices for the expenditure incurred on 4,000 teachers during a training programme held in 2016-17. To prove that Rs 16.40 lakh had been spent on the exercise, they roped in some shopkeepers and connived with them to prepare fake bills.

The bills showed that 4,000 chairs were rented from outside sources for five days at a cost of Rs 10 per chair. The total expenditure came to Rs 2 lakh. The chairs were actually taken from the District Institute of Education and Training, Gurdaspur. The cost of projectors was pegged at Rs 8 lakh, stationary at Rs 40,000, expenses for cleanliness and drinking water at Rs 2 lakh while Rs 4 lakh was earmarked as miscellaneous expenditure.

The projectors, computers and allied equipment were taken from Government High School, Moni Mandir, Dhariwal, and Government Senior Secondary School, Zaffarwal.

Initially, an inquiry was initiated by Gurdaspur DEO (Secondary). The probe had exonerated Gupta and Rampal. At that time, too, teachers unions had questioned the genuineness of the so-called probe.

Rs 16.40-lakh fraud

In November 2022, the Vigilance Bureau had arrested two principals — Ram Pal and Rakesh Gupta — for raising fake bills of Rs 16.40 lakh during a teachers’ training programme in Gurdaspur and Pathankot in 2016-17.