New Delhi: The Jharkhand Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Wednesday arrested five persons, including two employees of the former Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) examination chief and the firm that conducted the 14th JPSC Combined Civil Services Examination under an outsourcing contract, in connection with a probe into alleged irregularities in the two-stage test.
The latest arrests bring the total of those held in connection with irregularities in the examination to 19. The state agency nabbed Dharmender, a computer operator working at the residential office of retired Indian Administrative Service officer L. Khiangte, who resigned from the post of JPSC chairman after the CID raided his office. Khiangte has been questioned by the state agency four times.
The state agency, which initiated a probe on 22 July amid mounting allegations that the examination held on 19 April was compromised, also arrested one Rakshak Singh from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. He had qualified for the examination, which offered 103 posts for Group A and B Civil Services in the state, while serving as an accountant at TSR Data Processing Private Limited.
The agency had already arrested four employees of the firm, named Hemant Verma, Pradeep Kumar Singh, Sanjay Kumar, and Abhay Kumar Tiwari, the last also serving as a Block Supply Officer in the state’s Godda district.
The development comes at a time when protests against irregularities in examinations conducted by state bodies such as the JPSC and the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission continued with full intensity in the capital Ranchi. The Hemant Soren-led government on Wednesday also sent two administrative officers to discuss the students’ issues.
The protesting students have called for intensified protests and a march to encircle the Assembly on 10 August if the government does not accept their demands, including a probe into the JPSC leak by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Apart from the key accused, the CID has also arrested three candidates who qualified in the preliminary examination, the result of which was declared on 2 July. The CID identified the successful candidates arrested as part of the probe as Umakant Oraon, Roshan Kerketta and Manoj Kumar—all from Ranchi.
The CID spokesperson said that Oraon doubled as an agent to bring more candidates into the criminal fold. “He has passed the preliminary examination of the 14th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) by cheating and using unfair means and also works as an agent to provide candidates,” the CID spokesperson said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the CID had also arrested the trio of Umesh Kumar, Buddheshwar Bhagat and Ramesh Kumar on charges of conspiring to compromise the sanctity of the examination. “The investigation into the incident is underway. Further legal action will be taken based on the evidence obtained during the investigation,” the CID spokesperson said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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