In Assam, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has made a fresh plea to the state government seeking sanction to prosecute five former directors of the elementary education department for their alleged involvement in fraudulent withdrawal of crores of rupees from the government exchequer. The accused are J.C. Goswami, H.K. Sarma, Indra Bora, Mohsin Ali and B.K. Das. According to official sources, the Criminal Investigation Department have sought prosecution sanction against 14 accused earlier but the state government granted sanction against nine officials only. It refused to grant sanction against these five officials because of want of sufficient evidence.<br/><br/>AIR Silchar correspondent reports that the scam in the elementary education department first came to light in 2007 and the case was handed over to the CID in 2008. The total amount of money siphoned off by a section of the education department is estimated to be around Rs 20 crore.<br/>