2 Himachal cops grilled in constable paper leak scam

Two months after it sent questionnaires to police officers assigned responsibilities for conducting the now scrapped constable recruitment examination, sleuths grilled two senior officers for two days regarding the paper leak

Two months after it sent questionnaires to police officers assigned responsibilities for conducting the now scrapped constable recruitment examination, sleuths grilled two senior officers for two days regarding the paper leak.

The police had sent separate questionnaires to inspector general of police JP Singh, who is chairperson of the Police Recruitment Board and other members of the question paper setting committee and question paper printing committee. Both committees have four members each (Representative Image/HT File)

The police had sent separate questionnaires to inspector general of police JP Singh, who is chairperson of the Police Recruitment Board and other members of the question paper setting committee and question paper printing committee. Both committees have four members each.

“As the officers’ responses to the questionnaire were unsatisfactory, two senior officers were questioned for two days,” said Madhusudhan Sharma, head of the Special Investigation Team probing the matter.

The state’s home department had notified the revised Himachal Pradesh Police Department Recruitment (Recruitment of Constable Rules) in 2021, providing for the constitution of the Himachal Pradesh Police Recruitment Board and starting the online process for inviting applications. The board comprised an additional director general of police (armed police and training), all inspectors’ generals (IGs range, welfare and administration) and deputy inspectors general (DIGs, range). The board was entrusted with the responsibility of supervising the recruitment process. At the district level, the recruitment committee was headed by the range IG or DIG. It comprised one commandant of the state police battalion nominated by the DIG or superintendents of police (SPs) of concerned districts and one medical officer nominated by the chief medical officer.

The Himachal Pradesh Police CID wing filed a charge sheet against 61 accused in the constable recruitment paper leak case, while 91 persons were charge-sheeted in the court of the Kangra chief judicial magistrate.

Officers of the Crime Investigation Department filed a charge sheet against 21 middlemen, three parents, and 37 candidates in the court of chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Shimla.

Of the 61 accused, 27 are from Mandi, 11 from Hamirpur, seven in Una, six in Sirmaur, four in Kullu and three each in Bilaspur and Chamba. So far, the Special Investigation Team has arrested 171 people including 44 agents, 116 candidates and nine relatives of candidates from Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Punjab, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Delhi. They were booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed)and 120B (criminal conspiracy) in Kangra, Bharari and Solan.