More than 54,000 aspirants appeared for an examination held in October 2021 to fill 545 posts of Police Sub-Inspectors. After the results were announced in January this year, some of the aspirants alleged irregularities in the selection process.
It was seen that many of those who had done badly in the 50-mark descriptive paper (paper 1) had got exceptionally high marks — perhaps 130 out of 150 — in paper 2, which had objective-type questions. The wide divergence in performance raised suspicions.
In the first week of February, two in-service police constables who had taken the examination wrote to Director General of Police Praveen Sood complaining of irregularities in the exam. Subsequently, other aspirants demanded an inquiry.
The police denied the allegations and, on March 10, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra told the Assembly there was no malpractice. The Minister asked for proof, following which an application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet —used in the objective-type paper — of one of the candidates. But the recruitment wing of Karnataka State Police declined the request.
Later, the OMR sheet of one of the accused, Veeresh N, who had obtained the seventh rank among 67 candidates selected from the Kalyana Karnataka region, surfaced. He was found to have obtained 121 marks despite answering only 21 out of the 100 questions in paper 2 (total 150 marks; 1.5 marks per question).
On April 7, the Home Minister announced an investigation by the Karnataka CID, which registered a case and arrested Veeresh. More arrests followed and finally, on April 29, Jnanendra said the government had withdrawn the examination results, and that a fresh exam would be conducted soon.
IPS officer Amrit Paul
Paul, a 1995 batch officer of the Karnataka cadre, was heading the recruitment wing of the state police at the time of the alleged scam. He has served as superintendent of police of districts including Ballari and Bidar, and was for some time seen as a contender for the post of Bengaluru police commissioner — to which C H Pratap Reddy was appointed in May.
In April, as the investigation progressed, Paul was transferred as ADGP, Internal Security Division (ISD). He was questioned repeatedly and, on his fourth appearance before the CID on July 4, he was arrested and subsequently suspended by the state government.
He has been named as the 35th accused in a FIR registered at the High Grounds police station. Paul is the first serving ADGP to be arrested in the history of Karnataka.
Findings of the probe
The investigation initially focussed on the Jnana Jyothi English Medium School in Kalaburgi town, which was one of the examination centres. It was later found that the rot ran deeper, and that the strong room where the question papers and answer sheets were kept had been compromised, OMR sheets had been forged, and exam centres had been selected in a way that would facilitate malpractice. Aspirants paid between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 60 lakh for being selected, the probe has shown.
“They paid Rs 5-10 lakh in advance, and got to know the examination centre and room. This was a confidence building exercise… On the day of the examination, aspirants followed instructions of the agent, and were asked to hand over the OMR sheet to him, who were then supposed to hand them over only after taking the remaining payment from the candidate,” a police officer said.
The OMR sheets were reportedly manipulated at the examination centre itself. CCTV cameras installed at the centre were dysfunctional, the officer said. “There have also been allegations that students used bluetooth devices at some examination centres,” he added.
Suspects in the case
While Amrit Paul was in charge of the examination, DySP Shantha Kumar, who was the custodian of the strong room, is another prime accused.
Among those arrested is BJP leader Divya Hagaragi who runs Jnana Jyothi school; block Congress president Mahanthesh D Patil and his brother Rudragouda Patil; Hayyali Desai, the gunman of the Congress MLA of Afzalpur; assistant engineer Manjunath Melakundi; DySP (fingerprints) R R Hosamani of Kalaburgi; Dileep Sagar, police inspector attached to the women’s police station in Kalaburgi; Lingasur DySP Mallikarjun Sali; fingerprints section police inspector Anand Mestri; Assistant Commandant Vaijanath Revoor; and several of those who qualified in the examination.
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Parties’ reactions
The opposition Congress has been vocal about the scam and the alleged involvement of BJP leaders in it. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief D K Shivakumar has demanded that Home Minister Jnanendra should resign, accusing him of having lied to the Assembly.
Congress MLA Priyank Kharge has held several press conferences and demanded that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who was the Home Minister previously, must take responsibility.
Chief Minister Bommai has said that his government has given a free hand to police to investigate the case. However, Jnanendra would continue as Home Minister, he has said.
Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D K Shivakumar have attacked the government over the scam. (PTI)
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