New Delhi: Observing that a paper leak is “more heinous” than murder because of its lasting impact on society, the Chhattisgarh High Court Wednesday rejected the bail application of a retired IAS officer who was serving as secretary to the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC).
A single judge bench of Bibhu Datta Guru observed that offences like compromising the sanctity of an examination cannot be termed as “ordinary” charges and such alleged acts of the accused in the case are a clear example of “fence eating the crop”.
The CBI had arrested the retired IAS officer, Jeevan Kishore Dhruv, in September last year as part of a probe into the allegations of irregularities and nepotism in the commission’s 2021 examination. Dhruv was accused of getting his son Sumit Dhruv to the post of Deputy Collector during his tenure as the commission’s secretary. The central agency also arrested the commission’s then chairman, Taman Singh Sonwani, during the period as part of the probe.
“It is reiterated again, as observed while considering the bail applications of other accused persons in the crime in question that a person who indulges in facilitating leakage of question paper relating to competitive examinations, plays with the career and future of lacs of young aspirants, who are ‘burning the midnight oil’ to prepare for competitive exams, such an act is more heinous than an offence of murder because by killing a person, only one family gets affected but by ruining the career of lacs of aspirants whole society is adversely impacted,” Justice Guru observed in the order passed Wednesday.
“Therefore, the alleged charges levelled against the accused persons including the present applicants, can by no stretch of imagination be termed as ordinary charges. The action of the accused persons is a clear example of ‘fence eating the crop’,” he further observed.
The CBI had filed a chargesheet against Dhruv and his son, Sumit, alleging that the CGPSC’s Controller of Examination revealed that 42 questions from a question booklet recovered from Dhruv’s residence matched with the paper number 7 of the 2021 Main examination.
Additionally, the CBI had alleged that Sumit had practised essays on topics including Cryptocurrency, Russia-Ukraine War and the Role of the United Nations, Dantewada District and the Chhattisgarh Tonahi Pratadna Nivaran Act, which were subsequently mentioned in the main examination, making it easy for him to qualify in the examination using prior access to confidential examination material.
(Edited by Pakhi Khare)