PSI recruitment scam: Karnataka Home Minister said, the truth will come out in the investigation of the judicial committee
Bengaluru (IANS). Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara said on Saturday that the probe into the PSI recruitment scam has been handed over to a judicial committee, which will reveal the truth.
“A committee headed by retired High Court judge Justice B. Veerappa will conduct the probe,” he said.
Speaking to reporters, Parameshwara said, “We had demanded a judicial inquiry into the scam earlier also. This decision has been taken to bring out the truth. Investigation and recruitment will be done separately. If both are mixed then recruitment will not be possible.”
However, he also said that it is not possible to fill up the 400 vacancies until the issue is resolved. The government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday ordered a judicial inquiry into the PSI recruitment scam. The copy of the order was issued on Friday night.
The Congress government in Karnataka had announced that it would re-investigate the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam in the state.
For the first time in the history of the state, the police arrested more than 30 accused, including an ADGP rank officer.
Congress leaders strongly demanded the resignation of former Home Minister Araga Gyanendra. He ex-minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan was also accused of corruption and indirectly former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s son and BJP MLA B.Y. Vijayendra’s role was also mentioned.
ADGP Amrit Paul was arrested long back. He is still in jail.
Congress leaders said: “The investigation is stuck at this stage and the authorities have not bothered to take the probe further as there is involvement of powerful BJP politicians.”
CID has already filed two chargesheets in this scam.
54,041 candidates had appeared in the examination held on 3 October 2021 for 545 vacant posts of PSI. The examinations were conducted at 92 centers across the state and the results were declared in January.
Later allegations surfaced that candidates who performed poorly in descriptive writing got maximum marks in Paper-II. However, the police department under the previous BJP government and the then home minister had denied any irregularities in the PSI recruitment exam.
A candidate filed an RTI application seeking information regarding the OMR sheet of a candidate. Though the application was rejected, the OMR sheet of the candidate appeared in the public domain. Police sources say that candidate Veeresh answered only 21 questions in Paper-2, but got 100 marks and stood seventh.
RDPR, IT and BT minister Priyank Kharge had then alleged that over 300 out of 545 candidates had paid bribes of Rs 70 to 80 lakh to officials and ministers to become PSIs. The then BJP government challenged him to present the evidence before the CID.
