Ex-CS, 3 JKAS officers being charge sheeted in J&K SI selection scam
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has detected ‘lapses of serious nature’ in the selection of an agency by some senior IAS and JKAS officers for conducting the examinations of candidates for different non-gazetted cadre posts on behalf of the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (SSB). The investigating agency is likely to name one senior IAS and three JKAS officers as accused in its supplementary charge-sheet to be filed in a designated court in the current month.
Knowledgeable sources revealed that on the basis of the statements and disclosures of several accused and detainees, the CBI in Jammu has established the involvement of some senior government officers in the process of the selection of the exam agency for the SSB. According to these sources, the CBI has detected that the J&K Government officers and bureaucrats had ‘deliberately’ picked up a Bengaluru-based agency which did not qualify in the competition and had been already blacklisted by some South Indian States.
Sources said that working on some disclosures, the CBI called a retired IAS officer and grilled him for several hours last month. The officer has retired after holding the position of Chief Secretary in Jammu and Kashmir and the post of Secretary in the Union Government. A senior JKAS officer, who held a key position in the SSB, has revealed that the tainted agency had been picked up “under pressure from a former Chief Secretary”.
Sources said that at least three JKAS officers, who have held key positions in the SSB and have been already removed to insignificant places, were likely to be named in the CBI’s supplementary charge-sheet. It was still under investigation as to how the same tainted agency had been granted extension after extension in the SSB in the last several years. The retired Chief Secretary, according to sources, had no convincing answer when he was asked how he had interfered with the functioning of the recruitment board.
After conducting searches at 77 locations in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Delhi, Bengaluru and other places across the country, arresting 20 persons and seizing cash worth Rs.61.79 lakh, the CBI has filed a preliminary charge-sheet against 24 accused persons in its designated court in Jammu on 12 November 2022. Those named in the first charge-sheet include a former Commandant of the Border Security Force, an Assistant Sub Inspector of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and a number of personnel from J&K Police, CRPF and other CAPFs.
On the instructions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, a high-level departmental inquiry was conducted into the allegations of large-scale irregularities in conducting of the written examination for 1200 vacancies of Sub Inspectors by the SSB on 27 March 2022. The results of the written examination were declared on 4 June 2022. Most of the accusations of corruption and nepotism were established in the inquiry headed by Additional Chief Secretary Home R.K. Goyal.
On recommendation of the inquiry, the J&K Government cancelled the selection of the 1200 SIs and referred the whole selection process to the CBI for a detailed criminal investigation. The agency registered an FIR on 3 August 2022 and started the investigation.
During the investigation, it was found that one Yatin Yadav, a resident of Haryana’s Rewari, hatched the conspiracy of leaking the question papers of the J&K police SI recruitment examination. In pursuance of the conspiracy, Pradip Kumar Katiyar, an employee of a printing press, stole the question papers and passed the same over to Yadav. Yadav searched for the aspirants who were ready to buy the papers against huge amounts of money.
Yadav reportedly used a network of middlemen and officials of Jammu and Kashmir Police and CAPFs to target aspirants willing to pay anything between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 30 lakh each. Most of the transactions reportedly took place in Karnal.
Some of the accused reportedly made arrangements to provide the leaked question papers to several candidates in Gangyal, Jammu. The accused allegedly distributed the leaked question papers among the clients at the residence of a doctor who has been mentioned in the charge-sheet. While some of the detainees are still on remand, others have been under sustained interrogation by the CBI.
