Driving schools under CBI scanner

Court has ordered CBI probe into unauthorised MDTSes afresh. CBI had earlier requested for closure of the investigation for lack of 'sufficient evidence' against offenders (Transport department officials and their kin)

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will have to probe anew the roles of some of the Delhi government's Transport department officials in running unauthorised motor driving training schools (MDTSes), including the ones owned by their kin.

Representative pic

Rejecting CBI's plea to close the case on the ground that the officials, despite having been found guilty of committing "omission and lapses", sufficient evidence was not found to file a charge sheet against them, after which a Delhi court asked CBI to re-investigate the matter.

Special judge Sanjeev Jain rejected the CBI plea saying the large number of violations were not possible without connivance among officials and MDTS owners. As per the closure report, in the cases of number of MDTSes, lapses or deficiencies were found in respect of issuance or renewal of licences. A number of unauthorised MDTSes were found operational without any licences.

Insiders' job
"Such a large number of violations probably cannot take place without misuse of official position by public servants of transport department and their connivance with the owners of such MDTSes," the court said.
CBI had registered the FIR in 2008 alleging nine unauthorised MDTSes were being run by the relatives of Transport department officials and licences to these MDTSes were given on the basis of inspection reports. CBI had said the licences were renewed in violation of the rules and regulations, as the relatives of the MDTS owners were working in the department. During the probe, 10 such schools were found being run by the relatives of Transport department officials and four others were found operational in violation of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.

CBI at fault?
The court said CBI's closure report indicates that in some cases, action was taken by the Transport department but there was no detailed probe in this regard. "As per the closure report, the matter was referred to Delhi government for taking action against the Transport department officials found involved issuing or renewing licences to MDTSes but there is no clue if any action was taken against them," the court added.
"Keeping in view the circumstances of the case, in my opinion, the investigating agency requires reconsideration of the entire material in the light of the investigation already conducted or may collect further evidence. In view of the above findings, in my opinion, the matter requires reinvestigation by CBI," the judge said.