PSI scam: Accused levels corruption allegations against probe officers

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Corruption in the police department could cause a lot of damage as it leads to human rights and legal violations, the implications of which are bound to be serious in nature. Allegations made by one of the main accused in the Police SubInspector (PSI) recruitment scam against the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department recently, have added a new dimension to the controversial case.

After evading arrest for long and before surrendering to a court in Kalaburagi on Monday, Rudregowda Patil, 38, recorded a video clip in which he has accused CID officers of demanding bribes to absolve him in the case. In the clip, Rudragowda alleged that Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Shankargouda Patil offered him the opportunity to compromise with the cops by paying some money.

“DSP Patil had told me that the cops will file a chargesheet favourable to me if I pay him Rs 3 crore. I asked for a concession, but he refused to negotiate,” he said in the video. He further accused the DSP of taking Rs 76 lakh as part of the bribe.

Rudragowda claimed to have sent a letter to the Lokayukta along with a pen drive that contains an audio clip of the purported conversation between the accused and the CID officer.

Who is Rudregowda Patil?

Rudragowda Patil is a native of Gour village and a former president of the Gour Gram Panchayat in Afzalpur taluk. His close aide Mallikarjun Bidnur is a former member of the Bidnur Taluk Panchayat. During his tenure as gram panchayat president, Rudragowda was allegedly involved in irregularities in implementation of works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Following hints of his “involvement” in the PSI scam, the CID officials tracked Rudragowda and conducted raids on residences belonging to him and his younger brother, Mahantesh Patil, at Akkamahadevi Colony in Kalaburagi during which the cops claimed to have recovered around 15 OMR sheets and hall tickets belonging to candidates.

Allegations by the accused and counter-allegations by the cops The probe agency rejected Rudragowda’s claims saying it was an “attempt to distract the investigation”. DSP Shankargouda Patil said that Rudragowda is afraid that we will dig out more cases in which he is involved. “We have conducted the probe scientifically and based on evidence.

He knows that his involvement in scams will invite stringent Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, 2000 against him,” he said. Rudregowda Patil was arrested and later released from jail on December 18 last year after he was granted bail by the Karnataka High Court.

However, on January 19, a team of CID officers allegedly visited Rudregowda’s house in Akkamahadevi Layout in Kalaburagi to serve him an arrest warrant. But according to the police, he fled from the back door of his house. A day later, a fresh case was registered against Rudregowda in connection with the case at the Ashok Nagar Police Station, based on a complaint by CID inspector Anand.

On Saturday, Rudragowda released a seven-minute video in which he said that some political leaders were deliberately targeting him. In the complaint, police have alleged that the accused violated conditions of bail by avoiding a CID inquiry. As per the bail condition, the accused was directed to be available for inquiry all the time and that he should not change his contact number.

Investigation so far

Multiple first information reports (FIRs) have been filed by the CID in connection with the case, the first of which was filed in Kalaburagi in April last year.

More than 100 people including the Additional Director General of Police, Recruitment, Amrit Paul, some deputy superintendents of police and inspectors, besides a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Divya Hagaragi, who ownes the Jnana Jyothi English Medium School in Kalaburagi and the gunman of a Congress legislator were arrested in connection with the case.

Currently all the accused, except Paul, have been released on bail. In December, Paul’s daughter, Nuhar Bhansal, had claimed that her father is undergoing imprisonment for the past five months despite being innocent and that the court has rejected her bail petition.

The scam in the recruitment of PSIs in Karnataka came to light when candidates who did not perform well in the descriptive writing section allegedly scored high in the second paper. Although irregularities in the exam were denied by the authorities, one of the candidates filed an RTI application and enquired about the OMR sheets of one of the candidates.

While the application was rejected, the said OMR sheet became available on the public domain. The Karnataka government conducted the exams again in Octobe