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Apeejay case: Cops say emails sent from IP address of education dept
The Delhi government had also ordered the registration of an FIR against the schools, alleging that they had forged emails to justify hiking the fees. The police are investigating the matter and an FIR is yet to be registered.
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The Delhi police has informed the Delhi High Court that emails sent to the Apeejay School giving them permission to hike their fees were sent from the IP addresses of the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education. However, the counsel for the Delhi government contended that the emails were sent from the mobile phone of a contractual employee.
Two branches of Apeejay School-- Saket and Sheikh Sarai-- were sealed by the Delhi government’s education department on May 4 for charging hiked fees from students in violation of the directions issued under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, enforced in the city amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Later on May 5, the schools were de-sealed by the high court.
The Delhi government had also ordered the registration of an FIR against the schools, alleging that they had forged emails to justify hiking the fees. The police are investigating the matter and an FIR is yet to be registered.
Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia said, “This is a fraud fee enhancement case. Fee is not decided on emails sent to individuals like this. How can a fraud email be used to justify fee enhancement when the department (education) is saying it has not given any such order.”
During the hearing in the case on Thursday, the Delhi police submitted an affidavit, saying that the IP addresses from which the schools claimed they received emails were registered with Google in the name of the Deputy Director of Education Act-1. However, additional standing counsel Gautam Narayan, told the court that all the emails were generated from the mobile phone of a contractual employee.
The court will now hear the matter on August 6.
Calls and text messages to Binay Bhushan, director of education, remain unanswered.
“Delhi Police report has vindicated the stand of Apeejay Schools,” the Apeejay School said in a statement.
