4 police recruitment cell officers arrested in PSI case

The arrest of four Karnataka police recruitment cell officials and questionable track record of a senior officer working in the cell without a transfer for 12 years have raised questions about the cell’s role in the police sub-inspector recruitment scam.

The cell is responsible for the conduct of the examinations across the state, several officers in the force have raised questions on how the PSI scam can take place without knowledge of these officials.

On Tuesday, the CID arrested four officials from the recruitment cell in connection with the scam. CID identified the officials as Harsha, Srinivas, Sridhar and Lokesh, however, didn’t disclose their role in the scam. “We have been clear that arrests have been made based on the forensic evidence and information received during the interrogation of those arrested based on the forensic reports. These arrests were made in such a manner. We are still interrogating them,” a senior officer supervising the case said on Wednesday.

Another officer in the know of the development, however, said the police cell officials were arrested for their suspected involvement in moving the OMR sheets which were kept in the department’s custody. “The responsibility of storing OMR sheets after the examination is with the recruitment cell and these officials have been arrested for moving these sheets out of the safe rooms to help with the malpractice. We have to interrogate them further to get more details,” said the second officer.

Apart from the four police officers, the CID arrested two middlemen -- Manjunath and Sharath. These arrests have now established a nexus between recruitment wing officials, middlemen and aspirants. The six were remanded to nine days of police custody by a local court.

The investigation into the malpractices in the police sub-inspector recruitment examination has been focused on candidates suspected of forging their mark sheets. However, the police department has been abuzz as to why the CID probe had not yet reached the top officials of the police recruitment cell and was only focusing on individual candidates and exam centres.

Days after the scam came to light, the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) for the recruitment cell and chairman of the PSI recruitment committee Amrit Paul was transferred out of the cell by the state government. Paul, who has overseen police recruitments in the last two years, was transferred to the internal security department and the CID is expected to issue a notice to the IPS officer to appear before it for investigation.

However, a transfer that caught the attention of many was that of the deputy superintendent of police rank officer. P Shanta Kumar had a long tenure at the recruitment cell over the past 12 years with brief interludes when he was transferred out. However, he used to return to the cell, where he joined as an inspector and was promoted as a DySP, according to a senior police officer.

“There cannot be such widespread malpractices in the exams and selection of candidates without the involvement of those who conducted the exams. The CID claims that there is no involvement of the recruitment cell in conducting the invigilation or appointing the staff there, but the CID has been quiet on the powers the cell has in selecting the centres where the exams were held. While in a city like Bengaluru reputed institutions are chosen for the exams, in many parts little known private colleges have been selected. The institutes where the malpractices were reported were such places,” the senior police official said.

The investigation so far has revealed that two kinds of malpractices – forging of answer sheets and use of bluetooth micro sets for cheating – have been discovered so far. The scam has been reported in Bengaluru Kalburgi, Dharwad and Hassan districts.

Out of the 545 candidates, who have been selected, 93 are from Kalburgi and 172 from Bengaluru city. While 10 candidates have been booked in Kalburgi, FIRs were filed against 25 in Bengaluru. All eight persons booked in Kalburgi have been arrested, but in Bengaluru six are absconding. Out of 92 centres in the state, nine – two in Kalburgi and seven in Bengaluru – are under the scanner. All these numbers are expected to rise as the investigation is picking up pace.

Karnataka director general of police and inspector general Praveen Sood said action will be taken based on the CID’s report. “Whether it is changing to be made in our procedures, barring the candidates to have been cheating or taking action against any official involved will done based on the CID report,” Sood said.