Nagender Singh
Shimla, May 17
Realizing the gravity and sensitivity of state police recruitment scam in the assembly election year, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday ordered a CBI probe into the leaking of police paper whose paper leak mafia is spread across 10 states.
CM Thakur announced that the network of people involved in leaking of the paper is very wide and deep spread across 10 states and the state police have nabbed 73 accused till now.
Extolling the probe done by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) so far, the Chief Minister Jai Ram said, “The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has done a very good job in the Police recruitment paper leak case so far and have arrested 73 people from 10 various states. As a large number of states are involved in the matter, and also questions have been raised on the police investigating their own case. Hence, we have decided to hand over the case to CBI but the SIT of state Police shall continue its investigation till CBI takes over the case.”
He said one of the main kingpins has been arrested from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and another from Bihar.
“Two principal accused who are believed to be the kingpins in paper leaking, first Shiv Bhadur Singh who hails from Varanasi in UP and another Aman from Bihar, have been arrested by the SIT so far.”
The SIT is thoroughly investigating the matter and 38 aspirants have also been arrested besides two parents as well. The SIT has recovered 15 mobile phones, one swift car and one laptop, Thakur added.
The Himachal Pradesh government had announced the cancellation of the police recruitment exams on May 6 of this month, and today the CM Jai Thakur decided to hand over the case to the central probe agency to avoid casting of aspersions in the election year.
A total of about 1,80000 people had appeared in the preliminary Physically Efficiency Test (PET) with 75803 candidates qualifying for the written exams. These candidates appeared in the written exams on March 27 of this year whose paper got leaked and sold to the aspirants at huge amounts. Finally, a total of 1334 police constables were selected through a rigorous selection process which was later declared null and void as a consequence of paper leak.
