E-Paper
Haryana Public Service Commission official, 2 others held for graft; ₹1 crore seized
Haryana Public Service Commission had allegedly tampered with the marks of candidates of dental surgeons exam, held in September
The vigilance bureau on Thursday arrested the deputy secretary of Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and two others for allegedly manipulating the marks of candidates who appeared in the written examination for recruitment of dental surgeons, conducted on September 26, 2021, and recovered ₹1 .07 crore from the officer’s residence.
The arrested persons include HPSC deputy secretary, Anil Nagar, a Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officer; Ashwani Sharma, a resident of Jhajjar, and Naveen Kumar, a resident of Bhiwani.
Nagar is a 2016-batch officer, who came was posted as HPSC deputy secretary in March 2021. Earlier, he was posted as joint director, administration, secondary education, Haryana, and deputy secretary to government, Haryana, school education department.The FIR was registered on November 17, following which a raid was conducted on Thursday.
SP vigilance said they got a tip-off that the marks were manipulated and bribe was taken by a senior official of HPSC.
Following this, a trap was laid and Naveen Kumar, a resident of Bhiwani, was caught red-handed while accepting ₹20 lakh cash. Naveen is a government employee but works in another department.
He was produced before the court on November 18 and sent to four-day police custody.
Based on Naveen’s confession and other evidence obtained during investigation, the vigilance officials arrested Ashwani Sharma, a resident of Jhajjar, and seized ₹1.07 crore during a search at his house.
A senior officer in the vigilance bureau said that Ashwani Sharma is a private player. “He is a private player, who received money on behalf of Nagar. Hence, once the money was recovered from him, we asked him to call Nagar and fix a meeting to hand over the cash,” said the officer.
Then as Anil Nagar, received the money, he was arrested and same amount was recovered from his residence.
“Following further investigation, the vigilance arrested Anil Nagar, HCS, deputy secretary, HPSC. Search at the residence of one of his associates is going on, resulting in recovery of more cash,” officials said.
There is a possibility of the involvement of more people, officials said. The trio will be produced in court on Friday.
