The Karnataka Police recruitment division issued an order on Tuesday with names of 52 accused who featured in the scam's charge sheet.
PSI recruitment scam - Representational photo
The Police Recruitment Cell of the Karnataka State Police Department on Tuesday, 20 June, issued an order debarring 52 candidates who have been named accused in the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam — which rocked Karnataka in January 2022 — from future examinations.
“These 52 candidates — who have been named in the order are accused in the PSI scam, and their names also feature in the charge sheet submitted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) — will be permanently barred from participating in any recruitment process conducted by the police department in the future,” DGP (Recruitment) Kamal Pant told South First.
However, the good news so far is that for the rest of the candidates who are keeping their fingers crossed on the court’s decision, some of them are confident of even getting their PSI jobs, police sources told South First.
Examinations for the recruitment of 545 police sub-inspector posts were held in October 2021. The results were announced in January 2022 and the list of 545 of the 54,287 candidates who cleared the exams was put out.
The exams were carried out at 92 centres in Karnataka. However, irregularities came to the fore when a social media post revealed that one Veeresh Chandrashekar, a candidate from Kalaburagi who had ranked seventh, has been awarded 121 out of 150 marks even though he had attempted only 21 questions as per the carbon copy of his OMR sheet.
It was then that one of the biggest recruitment scams in the state unfolded, with the CID stepping in to probe the case. The CID probe revealed that lakhs of rupees were given in bribes.
The PSI scam triggered a political storm in Karnataka in 2022, in which more than 100 people were arrested, including the then head of recruitment, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Amrit Paul.
Among those arrested were personnel of the ranks of deputy superintendent of police, police inspectors, and sub-inspectors.
A BJP leader named Divya Hagaragi, who owns the Jnana Jyothi English School in Kalaburagi, the gunman of a Congress MLA, and an irrigation officer were also arrested in the case.
FIRs were registered in several parts of the state, including police stations in Kalaburagi, Bengaluru city, Hubbali-Dharwad, and Tumakuru.
In July 2022, the CID filed the preliminary charge sheet in the case, naming 34 people. However, as the investigation progressed, several others were named in the supplementary charge sheets.
The CID investigations revealed that the candidates used two methods of cheating.
One was that of using Bluetooth and/or other electronic devices, while the other involved insiders from the recruitment cell.
The candidates would not answer the unfamiliar questions and leave them blank. They later got their hands on the OMR sheets, where they filled in correct answers, police sources told South First.
In April this year, the Karnataka High Court sought a comprehensive report of all candidates involved in the police sub-inspector recruitment scam.
The court instructed the government to submit the report by 15 June, after hearing petitions from candidates who opposed the re-examination ordered by the state government for the recruitment drive.
According to the recruitment division in the State Police Department, the 52 debarred candidates were found to have been involved in misconduct under Rule 20 of the Karnataka Civil Services (General Recruitment) Amendment Act 1977.
The recruitment division also said it prepared the order for debarring these candidates from taking up any other recruitment examinations in the Police Department.
