Assembly polls behind CID dragging its feet in PSI scam probe?

Hameed Ashraf | NT

NT Analysis

Bengaluru: They say justice delayed is justice denied, but who cares? Certainly not the state's Crime Investigation Department. It is almost nine months since the department was entrusted with investigating the reported police sub-inspector (PSI) recruitment scam in the state.

From the look of the progress it has made so far, the CID has a long way to go before its officers reveal the “dark secrets” behind the alleged fraud. It is worth noting that apart from unearthing multiple levels of “malpractices” and arresting several candidates allegedly involved in the murky affair, there have been no major developments or seizures after the arrest of Additional Director General of Police Amrit Paul in this connection.

Soon after the “recruitment scam” surfaced, Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra had stated that the CID was given full freedom to probe the case. The police department stopped all recruitments “until the probe into the PSI scam is completed”, much to the dismay of candidates who had worked hard for employment.

It is also noteworthy that the scam was brought to light not by any minister or police official, but by some candidates on “noticing that many students who had performed poorly in descriptive writing got as many as 130 marks in the examination”.

Also, when this was brought to the notice of the Director General of Police Praveen Sood and the Home minister, the top authorities not only refused to conduct a revaluation, they also said that no malpractice had taken place in the exam. The recruitment wing of Karnataka State Police declined to furnish a right to information (RTI) application filed by one of the candidates, citing the law.

A little later, the OMR sheet of one of the accused, Veeresh, surfaced, which gave credence to the fraud allegation. Director General of Police (Recruitment) Kamal Pant said that a new team was brought in after the scam was exposed and no officer, who served in the recruitment cell during the controversial PSI recruitment, was retained in any position in the cell.

Irregularities were first noticed in Kalaburagi. In March 2022, Sridhar Pawar, a PSI aspirant who failed to clear the exam, collected a carbon copy of the OMR answer sheet of Veeresh Chandrashekhar, another candidate, who had ranked seventh among 67 candidates selected in the provisional list for the Kalyana Karnataka region.

He found that the latter had been awarded 121 out of 150 marks even though he had attempted only 21 questions (out of 100) as per the carbon copy of his answer sheet. Divya Hagaragi, former president of the women's wing in the BJP's Kalaburagi unit, and her husband Rajesh Hagaragi went absconding on April 10 and were arrested by CID officials after a pursuit over 18 days.

With the controversy heating up, it was only a matter of time before the CID sleuths traced the rot all the way to the strongroom of the Police Recruitment Cell. Later, the CID arrested DySP P Shantha Kumar, a key person in the Cell. ADGP Amrit Paul, who was heading the recruitment division when the scam broke out, was initially transferred to the Internal Security Division and replaced with Kamal Pant.

However, on July 4, 2022, Paul was arrested after being questioned by the CID four times. The CID probe revealed that Paul had reportedly given the keys of the strongroom in the CID annexe building, where the OMR sheets were kept under tight security, to Shantha Kumar.

Since he was in-charge, Shantha Kumar allegedly roped in first division assistant Harsha and RSIs Sridhar and Srinivas to help him with different roles: from allegedly filling blank OMR sheets to switching off CCTV cameras, the probe revealed.A charge-sheet was filed by the CID during September running into seven volumes.

It ran into 1,406 pages and contained 78 documents and 38 witnesses, alleging that Paul had received a “cut” of Rs 1.35 crore from candidates and had given the money to his neighbour Shambhulinga Swamy in safe keeping. The CID seized Rs 41 lakh from him and recorded his statement.

The court rejected Paul’s bail petition, as the CID counsel informed it that the investigation was pending, and they needed to collect evidence. The CID also informed the court that they were also waiting for the Forensic Science Laboratory report of Paul’s phone.

In July, attempting to corner the ruling BJP government, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President DK Shivakumar alleged that Amrit Paul was ready to reveal names of ministers and leaders involved in the scam, but investigating officers “were not recording it”.“Such an investigation will not do justice. There should be a judicial inquiry headed by a sitting High Court judge,&r