Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday ordered cancellation of police constables’ recruitment examination held March this year in the state in, following the charges of paper leak.
Over 75,800 youths, including boys and girls had appeared for the examination conducted at 81 centres in 11 districts of the state. The written examination termed as biggest recruitment drive after Covid-19 pandemic, was held to recruit 1,700 constables.
A total 60,454 male candidates and 14,563 female candidates had appeared for the examination. The candidates who had appeared for the examination included candidates with post-graduate degrees and M-Phil degrees, officials said.
The preliminary investigation done by the police revealed that the paper was leaked at a cost of Rs 6 lakh to 8 lakh per candidate.
The paper was leaked to the candidates, a day before the examination was conducted by the police headquarters.
The Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur confirmed to Outlook that he has ordered cancellation of the paper to maintain ``full transparency “ in the police recruitment process.
The examination will be held again within a month.
“I have got an FIR registered in the matter. Four persons ,including some candidates and private individuals involved in the paper leak have been arrested .No one will be spared “ he said.
A special investigation team (SIT) headed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Madhusudan has been set-up for a thorough probe.
Other members of the SIT included four SPs including Vimukt Ranjan, Khushal Chand Sharma, Rohit Malpani and Virender Kalia.
As the state goes to the polls before this year's end , the police constables recruitment scam has come as a big blow to the BJP government, which is already facing charges of playing with the careers of educated unemployed youths, whose number has exceeded 14 lakhs in the state .
The leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri alleged: “there is a recruitment mafia operating in the state. Paper leak is direct reflection in the working of the government and also the polic .These arrests ,lodging of FIR and SIT is an eye-wash. This racket has been going on for the past four years under the nose of the Chief Minister, who is also home minister of the state”.
Information available with Outlook reveals that the paper was leaked at three places, two of these in Kangra district ,bordering Punjab and one at Zirakpur.
The aspirant candidates were invited to different places ,including a coaching centre ,where they was handed over hand-written written question papers with solved answers .
All the candidates were made to stay at the centre and dropped to their places of examination by the promoters in their own vehicles .
Some of the successful candidates had scored marks upto 73 out of total 80 though their academic records were extremely poor .This had raised the doubts that led to arrest of a youth and his interrogation finally made the police to believe that paper had been leaked to vitiate the entire recruitment process .
