Cuttack, Sept. 9: Orissa crime branch has registered a case against Bijay Shankar Das, the son of former school and mass education minister Bishnucharan Das, giving a new twist to the fudged marksheet scandal.

A senior crime branch official said the case was registered yesterday on the basis of an FIR filed by the secretary of Orissa Board of Secondary Education (OBSE). The FIR had charged the former minister’s son and eight BSE employees with criminal conspiracy involving fake documents, marks tampering and violation of examination conduct rules.

The names of former BSE secretary and controller examination, however, had not been named in the FIR. Both were among those placed under suspension on the basis of a report submitted by chief secretary Ajit Tripathy.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had asked Tripathy to ascertain the truth of the scandal, which had surfaced with media reports on August 11. Bishnu Charan Das had tendered his resignation from the office a couple of days later.

The scandal involved increasing of aggregate marks of Bijay Shankar Das from 478 to 602 during tabulation at the OBSE headquarters in Cuttack before the results were declared in May.

“Cases have been registered against all the accused persons under Sections 464, 465, 468, 471, 474 and 120 (b) IPC,” said the senior official, adding: “Conviction under Section 468 could lead to a maximum sentence of seven years rigorous imprisonment.”

A special crime branch team led by a DSP had since started investigation on the case, official sources said.

Meanwhile, the Court of the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Cuttack had admitted a complaint case against the former minister for alleged role in the fudged mark sheet scandal involving his son's matriculation results.

Priyadarshi Patnaik, a member of Puri Bar Association had filed the complaint case with two other advocates — Kaliprasad Naik and Subrat Kumar Mishra — as witnesses. The petition has sought criminal proceedings against Bishnucharan Das by invoking sections 466, 468, 471, 201, 202, 34 and 120 (b) of IPC.

The SDJM however, had since refused to consider on the question of initiating criminal proceedings against the former minister before authentication of the complaint. As part of the validation process the Court has called for the recording of statements by witnesses along with a complainant deposition.

“It would be improper to pass any order before completion of recording of statements of the complainant and the two witnesses', the Court said. Counsel for the complainant had since sought time for it.