E-Paper
Panel to look into assistant professor recruitment scam
The committee been asked to scrutinise the report on the police investigation so far and then present their findings and recommendations to the government within the next three months
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has formed a three-member committee to oversee the probe into alleged irregularities in the recruitment of assistant professors in 2021, officials familiar with the matter said on Friday.
According to officials, the committee, set up of September 7, comprises high-ranking government officials, including the additional chief secretary of the government, the additional chief secretary to the department of Home, and the principal secretary to the Law Department.
“They have been asked to scrutinise the report on the police investigation so far and then present their findings and recommendations to the government within the next three months,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.
The alleged malpractice took place in September 2021, after the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) issued a recruitment notice to 1,242 assistant professor positions in various government first-grade colleges. The competitive examination were conducted from March 12 to 16, 2022 at seven different centres across Karnataka, including Bengaluru. The merit list resulting from these examinations was officially announced on October 10, 2022.
The controversy emerged when an individual named Ramakrishna filed a complaint with the KEA, alleging that a candidate named Sowmya had leaked the geography examination questions. In response to this complaint, the KEA initiated an internal investigation, and Sowmya’s cooperation with the inquiry was less than satisfactory, prompting the KEA to file a formal complaint at the Malleswaram police station in 2021.
During the course of the police investigation, H Nagaraj, the individual responsible for preparing the geography question paper was interrogated by the police. Nagaraj also served as Sowmya’s PhD research guide. Following the investigation, both Professor Nagaraj and Sowmya were arrested by the Malleswaram police in 2021, and criminal charges were registered against them. Presently, legal proceedings are underway in the case.
All OMR sheets submitted by candidates who participated in the examination, along with the details of the shortlisted candidates, have been submitted for police scrutiny. After an approximately six-month-long investigation, a report was submitted to the KEA on June 19, 2023. The report found malpractice by Sowmya and her accomplice, however, no further irregularities were found.
“After police submitted the report, the KEA had requested a government review of the report and based on that a committee has been set up,” said the above-mentioned official.
This is not the first review of an ongoing investigation by the Congress government. In July, the government in Karnataka appointed retired Karnataka high court judge B Veerappa as a one-man judicial commission to probe the allegations of a scam related to the recruitment of Police Sub-Inspectors (PSIs) in 2021.
On August 11, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), as part of the investigation, lodged a case against officers of the Central Crime Branch as part of an investigation into the alleged bitcoin scam. Deputy superintendent of police, CID, K Ravishankar, filed a complaint against unnamed officers from the Central Crime Branch who were involved in investigating the 2020 case that implicated Srikrishna, a software engineer turned hacker and 10 others.
Similarly, on August 26, an enquiry commission, headed by retired high court judge John Michael Cunha, was set up to probe the alleged irregularities in COVID-19 management.
