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Paper leak scam: Himachal Vigilance SIT files another FIR; 5 booked
The Special Investigation Team of state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau which is probing the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission paper leak scam has filed a fresh FIR
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau which is probing the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC) paper leak scam has filed a fresh FIR after evidence of paper leak of lineman recruitment exam were unearthed.
Kingpin of the racket Uma Azad, the then secretary of HPSSC Jitender Kanwar, agents Neetu Dogra and Hari Ram and one candidate Manmohan Singh have been named as the accused in the FIR filed on Monday. This is the tenth FIR in the scam that was busted in December last year. FIR has been registered against five people after evidences of paper leak of lineman recruitment exam under post code 971 were discovered, SP vigilance, central range, Rahul Nath was quoted as saying in the local press.
HPSSC had invited applications for 186 posts of lineman in Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board in May 2022. More than 26,000 applications were received of which over 22,600 were provisionally admitted. Written screening exam was held on August 25 and its result declared on November 5, 2022 in which a total of 738 candidates were shortlisted for last stage of document verification.
The paper leak scam was busted before the final result could be declared. Vigilance sources said that the candidate Manmohan Singh obtained the question paper of the exam with help of Neetu Dogra and Hari Ram, who acted as agent of kingpin Uma Azad.
Notably, Dogra is neighbor of Azad and is accused in another paper leak case in which she had obtained question paper of Junior Office Assistant recruitment exam for her brother. She was currently out on bail and may be arrested again in the fresh case. Uma Azad, the main accused, who was posted in the secrecy branch of HPSSC, would leak the question papers and sell these to the candidates with the help of her two sons and agents. They would charge in lakhs in lieu of the question papers. The racket was busted on December 23 last year when a candidate filed complaint with vigilance bureau.
The paper leak racket was busted on December 23, 2022 when vigilance raided main accused Uma Azad’s house following a complaint filed by a candidate for Junior Office Assistant (IT) exam slated for December 25. Vigilance team had found the question papers of JOA (IT) and two more exams during the raid besides some cash. Subsequent probe exposed a bigger racket allegedly being run by a woman Azad, and her sons. Azad was posted in the secrecy branch of the HPSSC, the wing that responsible for keeping the question papers confidential before these are supplied to the exam centres.The government suspended the HPSSC on December 26 and a SIT was constituted to conduct a thorough probe into the scam after allegations of irregularities in the exams conducted in last three years. Since then the vigilance team has found evidence of paper leak of 11 post codes while investigations are underway still underway.
In February, the government dissolved HPSSC and HP Public Service Commission was entrusted the responsibility to complete the process for pending recruitment exams. The HPPSC since has declared final results of three exams.
