CBI books Kendriya Vidyalaya principal for admitting 193 students on fake certificates

NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked the principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya in Visakhapatnam for allegedly admitting 193 ineligible students on the basis of fake service certificates purportedly issued by various Central government departments by taking bribes from their parents, officials said Thursday.

The CBI has registered two FIRs against Principal S Sreenivasa Raja pertaining to admission of 124 ineligible students during academic year 2022-23 and 69 such students for 2021-22, they said. The agency has alleged that Raja conspired with the parents of ineligible students and provided admission to them into various classes without verifying the applications and service certificates and received undue pecuniary advantage to his bank accounts with the State Bank of India and the Union Bank of India through UPI mode.

ALSO READ| No proposal to revive MP quota for admissions in Kendriya Vidyalayas: Education Ministry

The irregularities were detected by the CBI during a joint surprise check conducted by its Visakhapatnam unit in Andhra Pradesh on May 3 and 4 this year at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Waltair, in order to verify the admissions provided by Raja for 2022-23. "Raja conspired with parents of ineligible students and provided admissions to ineligible students of various classes...and received a pecuniary advantage in lieu of providing the admissions," the FIR said. The action against Raja was initiated after getting sanction from the commissioner of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan.