Whether it is recruitment of dental surgeons, HCS officers, staff nurses or ANMs under the HPSC – the challan presented by Haryana state vigilance bureau points to deep-rooted recruitment scam, wherein jobs were ‘sold’ at the cost of ₹10 to ₹35 lakh per candidate.
The matter is still under investigation and high profile officers are allegedly involved. From an HCS officer to the one that prepared results and other agencies are involved in this multi-crore scam.
On January 17, the vigilance bureau has presented a challan in the Panchkula court against the three arrested accused, including the then Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) deputy secretary Anil Nagar who are allegedly involved in the HPSC recruitment scam, under Sections 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Sections 420, 466, 468, 471 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 8(3)(4) of the Haryana Public Examination (Prohibition of Unfair Means) Act, 2021.
The case dates back to November 17, 2021 when the vigilance bureau got a written complaint from a Hisar resident regarding the scam.
The complainant had stated that two friends had been planning to expose corruption in the examination process for the past several years and have now got success.
{{/usCountry}}The complainant had stated that two friends had been planning to expose corruption in the examination process for the past several years and have now got success.
{{/usCountry}}The challan mentioned that the complainant came across Naveen, who charged ₹35 to 40 lakh per candidate to get their dental surgeon exam cleared. All they had to do was answer 35 to 40 questions. The dental surgeon exam was held on September 29, 2021 and they got hold of two candidates, one of which is Dalbir Singh.
“The candidate copy was given to Naveen, which had marked 60-62 questions but the final copy had 172 questions answered. Eight days before the result was officially announced, he informed us that our candidate has cleared the exam and asked for ₹35 lakh bribe,” the challan mentioned.
The complainant approached the vigilance bureau, which arrested Naveen from the parking of Sector 5, Panchkula with ₹20 lakh – the initial amount of the bribe.
His arrest led them to Ashwani Sharma, who prepares results for various posts under the HSSC and the HPSC. “Together, we cleared exams of dental surgeons of eight candidates and charged ₹20 lakh each. It includes candidate Dalbir Singh as well. Bribe from seven candidates has been handed over to Ashwani:” as stated in the challan.
Naveen allegedly confessed that apart from this examination, in HCS exam, 2021 they got ₹20 lakh each from two candidates, then exams of 40 staff nurses, four VLDA, and 15-16 ANMs were cleared, and ₹10 lakh per candidate was taken.
Based on his confession and other evidence, Ashwani Sharma was arrested and ₹1.07 crore was recovered. Ashwani, who runs a data processing company, said he came in contact with Naveen around one year back.
“He gave me roll numbers of five candidates and I got their pre-exam of HCS cleared. The bribe was given to Anil Nagar, HCS, deputy secretary, HPSC. He gave 13 such cases of dental to Nagar. In return, I used to get the work of data processing and ₹2 lakh commission:” the challan stated.
He alleged that he has to give pending bribe amount of ₹1.07 crore to Nagar regarding dental surgeon exam. A WhatsApp call was made to Nagar and they spoke in “code language”, following which, Nagar asked him to visit his office. Later, the bribe amount was recovered from Nagar’s office.
In the challan, it is mentioned that Anil Nagar, who was given the responsibility by the HPSC to conduct exams of HCS and dental surgeon, accepted that he took bribe of ₹25-30 lakh from candidates for dental surgeons’ exam and took ₹15-20 lakh for clearning pre-exam of HCS candidates.
“I had asked Ashwani Sharma to get roll numbers and candidate OMR sheets of a few candidates. I got 15 such candidates. After scanning, we filled the blank answers on the original and carbon copy of the sheets. Of 15, five candidates passed the test and Ashwani Sharma had given me ₹1.30 crore:” stated the challan.
It adds: “Then, Ashwani gave me 17 roll numbers of candidates in dental surgeon exam. Of these, 13 cleared the test. I got ₹2.08 crore from Ashwani.”
The original OMR sheets and carbon copy of 14 roll numbers of the recruitment test for dental surgeons (Class-II), 20 OMR sheets of HCS (Ex Br) and other allied services preliminary examination was recovered from his office.
On November 23, the three were sent to judicial custody and are lodged in Ambala jail.
The investigation, in this case, is under progress, while the report of handwriting check, voice sample, etc is yet to arrive from FSL Madhuban. Involvement of more people cannot be ruled out, said officials.