UKSSSC to debar 200 candidates for using unfair means in exams
Confirming the development, UKSSSC chairman GS Martolia said, “We have received a list of roughly around 200 candidates from the police department who used unfair means in graduate level, secretariat guard, forester, and forest guard exams. Since the police investigation is still underway, the number can go up.”
The Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UKSSSC) will debar around 200 candidates who allegedly used unfair means to clear government recruitment exams, a senior official said on Monday.
Confirming the development, UKSSSC chairman GS Martolia said, “We have received a list of roughly around 200 candidates from the police department who used unfair means in graduate level, secretariat guard, forester, and forest guard exams. Since the police investigation is still underway, the number can go up.”
“These candidates will be issued notices and subsequently debarred from appearing in government recruitment exams,” he said, adding, “We will soon issue an exam calendar and exams will be conducted from May onwards.”
In July last year, the Uttarakhand police’s special task force (STF) had initially arrested six people for allegedly leaking the graduate level exam question paper and selling it to the candidates for ₹15 lakh each. The STF subsequently unearthed the rigging of different exams conducted by UKSSSC.
The Uttarakhand government then entrusted the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission to conduct Group C exams.
So far, the STF has arrested 56 accused for allegedly facilitating cheating in several exams – 44 in graduate level, 2021, five in forester, one secretariat guard, six in village development officer, 2016.
In September, 2022, the STF had invoked the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against 24 accused, including mastermind Sayeed Sadiq Moosa, Lucknow-based private tech firm RMS Technosolutions (India) Pvt Ltd owner and director Rajesh Kumar Chauhan, and former BJP leader from Uttarkashi Hakam Singh Rawat. The process of confiscation of illegal acquired properties of these 24 accused is in process, according to the officials.
In December, the UKSSSC had cancelled three examinations — secretariat guard, graduate level and forester — owing to allegations of irregularities coming to the fore in these exams.
The announcement from UKSSSC came days after Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC) debarred 105 candidates for using unfair means in junior engineer and lekhpal/patwari exams, a senior official said. These candidates will not be allowed to sit in any government recruitment exam for next five years.
Confirming the action, UKPSC secretary Girdhari Singh Rawat said, “We have debarred 61 candidates for using unfair means in JE exam and 44 in lekhpal/patwari exam for five years. They will not be able to sit in any government recruitment exam during this period/.”
The UKPSC on March 10 had cancelled the JE exam after a special investigation team (SIT) of Haridwar police found irregularities in the exam. The exam was conducted between May 7 and 10, 2022. In January earlier this year, the UKPSC had cancelled the lekhpal/patwari exam which was conducted on January 8, 2023.
