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| Bribe mystery further deepens, even after taking the head of Peerzada | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | Jan 16
Tendering of his resignation by the Education Minister, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed and its acceptance by the Governor, on the advice of the Chief Minister as well as Peerzada's removal from the post of J&K Pradesh Congress President rather than winding up the controversy raised after the allegations of bribe taken on behalf of the minister from MLA, Shoaib Lone has further prolonged it. Instead of the mystery unfolding itself with the arrest of the accused conduit, has further deepened and compounded, as a result of the reported statement given by the accused driver, Altaf Noorani about his close proximity with the family of the complainant MLA Shoaib Lone as well as his proximity with the family of the accused former minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed.
Altaf Noorani who present is serving as a driver in the J&K Board of School Education, though was in no way attached as the personal staff of the former Education Minister, yet had developed family relations with the Peerzada's, who according to his own statement called Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed's wife Dr. Tabasum as Didi, while he called the complainants mother as Mummy. Altaf Noorani was earlier attached with Shoaib Lone's father, the slain MoS for education Dr. Ghulam Nabi Lone for two years. Denying the charge that he had ever threatened the mother of Shoaib Lone on telephone of dire consequences of his son complaining against him and the Peerzada in the assembly as well as his involvement in taking the bribe of Rs 40,000 from Shoaib Lone, Altaf Noorani is reported to have told the police that while he was talking to Shoaib's mother on phone, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed's wife (Didi) took his phone and stared talking with Lone's mother. In a way Altaf Noorani has admitted that he had made the phone call from the house of the Peerzada and in the presence of Peerzada's wife. All this deepens the mystery further about the connections of the accused driver with the two families. If the driver was not on the personal staff of the Education Minister, then what for he had been frequently going to the residence of the minister? This shows that the ministers use the officials of the departments under them as their personal aides and get household works from them.
The proximity of the accused driver with the two families of the complainant and the accused also presents an angle of the entire controversy to be a family affair or even a family feud. All these aspects need be probed. In fact an independent enquiry into the whole murky affair is called for to unravel the entire mystery and set at rest the controversy.
While Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed has resigned from the cabinet as well as from the Presidentship of the Pradesh Congress, this alone will not be the adequate punishment, if he is proved really guilty and that the accused driver had demanded and accepted the bribe on behalf of the minister, a stringent action will be called for, including prosecution of the former minister under anti graft law. But at the same time, there should be no witch hunting and no innocent should be punished, which will be travesty of justice it shall have to be proved beyond any doubt that the accused driver had actually demanded and accepted the bribe on behalf of the sacked minister. On the face of it, it looks unconvincing that a Cabinet Minister will demand and accept a bribe of a small amount of Rs 40,000. But the greed has no standard, which can make a person stoop to any level. To arrive at the bottom of the case an independent high level enquiry needs be held. If the sacked minister is proved innocent and the conduit had only misused his name, he should be reinstated honourably.
The complainant MLA, Shoaib Lone is himself an accused, who having confessed his crime of offering bribe too needs be booked under the law and dealt with accordingly, since offering bribe is as much the offence as taking it. Since prima fascia Lone having confessed his guilt in paying the bribe, stands guilty under the anti graft law, he must be made accountable for the same. To uphold the moral values, it enjoins upon him to resign his assembly seat, to start with. It also needs be probed whether the sister of Shoaib Lone, who had sought permission for opening elementary teacher training course, fulfilled all the criteria for sanction to be granted for the same or she as well as Lone wanted to get the sanction by passing the rules and criteria set for the same. Opening of elementary teacher training course has become a highly lucrative business. Why Shoaib Lone did not muster the courage at that time to resist by not offering the bribe and instead reporting the matter to the Vigilance Department and what made him to throw the bomb shell in the assembly at this juncture also needs to be probed and brought before the public. |
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