Ex-Speaker,11 babus booked

The bureaucrats (some retired) who were booked include Assembly Secretariat officials during Singh’s tenure as Speaker — assembly secretary J S Pal,deputy secretary Nawal Kishore Singh,under secretary Rameshwar Prasad Choudhary,deputy secretary Rajkishore Rawat,speaker’s private secretary KP Singh,accounts secretary Baiju Prasad Singh,section officer SK Jaiswal,deputy secretaries VD Tiwari,Braj Kishore Singh,Arun Kumar and Purusottam Mishra.

The Vigilance Bureau,in its FIR lodged on Tuesday evening,said Sadanand Singh “exceeded his powers (of making ad hoc appointments) by appointing 90 clerks in the Assembly”. Though the advertisement for the appointment of clerks mentioned that only a written test would be conducted,a 25-mark interview was added later “to benefit some candidates”.

Irregularities were found in 30 appointments. Of them,18 were relatives of Singh and other members of the selection panel.

Singh,a senior Congress leader,was Speaker between 2000 and 2005 when Rabri Devi was the chief minister.

The clerks’ vacancies were advertised by the Assembly Secretariat in 2001 and a written examination took place in August 2002. Ninety candidates were selected in several phases till the end of 2003.