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Andhra:2018 Andhra Group-I exam riddled with irregularities, say SIT probe
Andhra:2018 Andhra Group-I exam riddled with irregularities, say SIT probe
Amaravati, An SIT probing the 2018 Andhra Pradesh Group-I recruitment examination has uncovered alleged irregularities across multiple stages of evaluation, including the use of unauthorised evaluators, purported manual evaluation at a private resort and widespread alterations in OMR evaluation sheets.
The probe pertains to Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission's recruitment of 169 Group- I posts through a notification issued in 2018. It attracted more than 1.14 lakh applications.
"An SIT probing the 2018 Andhra Pradesh Group-I recruitment examination, the state's premier civil services examination has uncovered serious irregularities across multiple stages," said a press release.
The SIT was constituted by the Andhra Pradesh government in February 2026, following directions from the High Court to scientifically examine allegations of tampering and irregularities in the recruitment process.
According to the SIT, alleged irregularities had occurred during three separate evaluation exercises - the original digital valuation in 2021, a purported manual valuation conducted at a private resort following a High Court order, and a second manual valuation conducted at Vijayawada in 2022 during the erstwhile YSRCP government.
During the digital evaluation, the SIT alleged that unauthorised evaluators, private e-mail and mark discrepancies had occurred, adding that the first major irregularities arose during digital evaluation of the mains stage of the examination.
"The SIT found that the decision to introduce digital evaluation, as well as the panel of evaluators engaged for the exercise did not carry the mandatory approval of the PSC Chairman," said the press release.
Out of a secretary-approved panel of 158 evaluators, only 72 actually evaluated the answer scripts while another 25 persons who were not on the approved panel also evaluated answer scripts and were paid, the SIT claimed.
The approved panel itself predominantly consisted of teachers and lecturers from private schools and colleges instead of the university-level subject experts contemplated by the PSC Office Manual, it said.
The digital evaluation was coordinated through an unofficial private e-mail account, personal email accounts and Google Drive links, said the SIT.
The probe noted alleged differences between marks originally entered by the evaluators and the marks reflected in the final digital-result database.
The SIT noted that the second-evaluation marks were allegedly entered in several cases without an independent second examiner, with one freelancer, Mahamkali Raghuram, making such entries himself.
The SIT observed that the PSC paid ₹1.38 crore to Stone Media Advisory Services and TrueGrader for the digital evaluation exercise, adding that Raghuram received approximately ₹10 lakh towards evaluation and coordination work.
Following candidates challenging the digital evaluation in the High Court, it ordered a manual evaluation, observing that the notified methodology to digital valuation was contrary to the recruitment notification.
Later, the SIT noted that manual evaluation was undertaken at a private resort, which was not a government office but a private space, where "manual evaluation" amounted to only allegedly re-entering the earlier digital marks.
According to the SIT, answer scripts had remained in a private agency's custody for 84 days and accused the then PSC secretary PSR Anjaneyulu over the manual evaluation irregularities.
Further, it noted that the second manual evaluation was conducted in Vijayawada after D Gautam Sawang took charge of the PSC in February 2022.
However, the SIT alleged that there was no documentary record supporting the policy decision of the then PSC chairman, Sawang, to conduct the second manual evaluation.
In the second manual evaluation, the SIT claimed that there were several discrepancies, such as alleged 95 percent alterations or over-writings, different inks and handwritings and others.
Highlighting that forensic material was examined by Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad, New Delhi, Shimla, Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata and Guwahati, the SIT raised concerns over the custody and surveillance of confidential examination material.
It found that there was allegedly no CCTV coverage over the PSC Confidential Sections or the Strong Room during the original examination period.
"During the fresh manual valuation in 2022, cameras were initially installed only in two confidential-section rooms. The Strong Room itself came under CCTV only on April 11, 2022 17 days after valuation began," said the press release.
Even after cameras were installed, the SIT found multiple alleged inconsistencies between CCTV footage and the official Guard Register.
The SIT additionally found that most examiners were allegedly using mobile phones inside the manual evaluation camps and another inconsistency was the unusually large number of answer scripts that required a third evaluation.
According to PSC, only 0.45 percent of scripts required third evaluation in the previous Group-I recruitment, compared with alleged 10.2 percent in the 2018 recruitment process.
"The SIT said that while this alone could not establish wrongdoing, the dramatic increase, taken together with over-writing, unauthenticated corrections, signature mismatches and other forensic irregularities, indicated serious inconsistency in the evaluation process," the release said.
A criminal case was registered in April 2025 under Sections 409, 477-A, 420 and 120-B read with Section 34 of the IPC.
Camsign Media Director P Madhusudhan Rao was arrested in May 2025, while Anjaneyulu was secured on a Prisoner Transit Warrant for investigation.
The SIT examined 173 witnesses, and the investigation includes forensic reports, financial records, WhatsApp communications, electronic data, valuation records, videos and reconstruction of the evaluation processes at both the resort and Vijayawada.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
