Police sub-inspector recruitment exam scam: Fraud in selection can create anarchy, says Karnataka HC

The judge rejected the claims for bail made on the grounds of lack of evidence and the offences in the recruitment scam not being punishable with death or imprisonment for life.

“The other contention is that the offences are not punishable with death or imprisonment and bail is a rule and jail is an exception and the same cannot be accepted for the reason that in a case of murder, the life of a person and his family are affected but, in a case of a crime like this, the whole society will be affected and it will be an impact on the society and the people will lose faith in the very system which creates anarchy in the society,” the judge said.

Justice Sandesh also pointed to forensic evidence, which prima facie indicates that the candidates seeking bail had their answer sheets manipulated after the exam in order to gain selection to the Karnataka police department as sub-inspectors.

“The material placed before the court in respect of the petitioners, who are the candidates in the PSI examination, it is seen that their papers are manipulated. It is the main contention of the prosecution also that, though the candidates answered only a minimum number of questions, the RFSL (regional forensic science laboratory) report placed before the court discloses that the names of these petitioners are also found wherein, their OMR sheets have been manipulated,” the high court said.

“Hence, the petitioners are not entitled to bail during the crime stage since it is a big scam and these petitioners have indulged in the process of selection of PSI which is nothing but an act of terror to the society,” Justice Sandesh has stated.

The real victims in the police exam scam are the candidates who “suffered injustice at the hands of persons who indulged in the manipulation of OMR sheets and also tampering the same which were kept in the secret guard room, in the custody of persons in the helm of affairs of the selection process,” the Karnataka high court has pointed out.

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Four candidates, Praveen Kumar H R (sixth rank in the selection list), Raghuveer H U (seventh rank), Surinarayana K (22nd rank), and Dileep Kumar C K (37th rank), who were arrested in the PSI exam scam two months ago, had approached the high court after their bail pleas were earlier rejected by the lower courts on the stance that the scam has deep ramifications in society.

Three middlemen involved in the scam, C N Shashidhar, Sharath Kumar R, and Naveen Prasad, a serving police sub-inspector accused of collecting bribes to the tune of over Rs 1 crore from two candidates, also approached the high court.

Nine of the top 10 rank winners in the exam have been arrested and as many as 40 candidates out of the 545 selected in the exam held on October 3, 2021, are accused in the scam, along with as many as 25 middlemen, agents, and police officers.