THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram CBI court has found the accused guilty in the 2002 SSLC question paper scam case. The case is regarding the corruption of 1 crore 33 lakh rupees. The accused in the case are printer Annamma Chacko, S Ravindran and V Sanu, who are former secretaries of Pareeksha Bhavan.

Pareeksha Bhavan gave Rs 1.33 crore to an inexistent company to print the question paper. The CBI's charge sheet states that the printing houses which had been awarded the contract earlier, with the help of officials and cheated the government under the guise of a Benami company.

Rs 80.77 lakhs was spent on printing SSLC exam question papers in 2001. The question paper was printed by a company named H Kundu based in Kolkata. In 2002, H Kundu quoted Rs 70 lakh and Chennai company MV Money Printers quoted Rs 64 lakh. The contract was awarded to MV Money Printers who quoted the lowest amount.

A three-member committee consisting of the Commissioner of Examinations, Secretary of Examination Bhavan and Senior Finance Officer was appointed to negotiate the printing amount. The commissioner also informed that the files which were checked and confirmed by the secretary and officials came for the consideration of the committee.

Based on the Kerala Kaumudi reports, the CBI found that officials and contract companies caused a loss of Rs 1.33 crore to the government in connection with printing 32 exam question papers, including SSLC question papers from 2002 to 2004.

M Gopalan, who was the Commissioner of Examinations from 2002-2003, had testified before Special CBI Court Judge K Sanil Kumar that the bills and related documents in the SSLC question paper printing contract were evaluated by the then Pareeksha Bhavan secretary and officials. He had said that all he did was sign the cheques.