CBI registers first FIR against UPPSC officials, others in recruitment scam

The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry to look into the alleged irregularities in the examination conducted by the Allahabad-based UPPSC between 2012 and 2017.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday registered its first FIR against unknown ‘private persons’ and officials of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) in connection with a probe into recruitments conducted by the commission between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2017 in UP.

CBI had received a recommendation from the UP government to initiate a probe into an examination conducted by the UPPSC.(AFP Photo)

“The FIR has been registered by CBI deputy SP Satender Singh who is heading the probe, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for various offences including criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct by public servant,” said a spokesperson for the CBI.

The FIR was registered after CBI officials detected anomalies in the selections made in the Combined Upper Subordinate Examination, 2015 (PCS-2015) conducted by the UPPSC. Earlier, the CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry on the allegations that unknown persons and officials of UPPSC, Allahabad, had committed irregularities in the examinations.

The FIR, a copy of which has also been made available on the website of the CBI, claims that during the course of the inquiry, the officers of the UPPSC did not cooperate and did not part with information on one pretext or the other. However, the inquiry conducted so far reveals officials of the UPPSC connived with other persons/candidates for their selection in the examination.

The inquiry revealed that the UPPSC made recruitments on 521 posts through the PCS-2015 exam and in it, moderation was done in the compulsory subjects like general Hindi and essays.

It also claims that the inquiry had also revealed that in the exam, moderation was arbitrary.

They mentioned in their reports that they started random moderation of the answer scripts checked by examiners as mandated by the SC guidelines to end the variability of different examiners but did not mention anything in their report about moderation of answer scripts of other candidates, hence violating the Apex court orders, the FIR adds.