In a major development, the Kalaburagi Sessions Court on Thursday granted bail to alleged kingpin BJP leader Divya Hagargi and 25 others in connection with the sensational Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam. Judge KB Patil gave the order granting bail to Hagargi and also to other main accused Manjunath Melakundi and Deputy Superintendent of Police Mallikarjuna and others on Thursday, January 5.
The court has granted bail to 36 accused in the case to date. Those who got bail on Thursday, included eight candidates, five examination invigilators and three policemen. The Karnataka government had announced re-exams for 545 PSI posts after the scam came to light. The exams were held for these posts on October 3, 2021, and as many as 54,041 candidates had appeared. The results were announced in January 2022.
Later, allegations surfaced that candidates who performed poorly in descriptive writing got maximum marks in Paper 2. However, the police department and the Home Minister denied any irregularities in the PSI exams.
One of the candidates filed an RTI application seeking information on OMR sheets of one of the candidates. Though the application was rejected, the OMR sheet of the candidate appeared in the public domain. Police sources said that Veeresh, the candidate, had attended only 21 questions in Paper 2 but got 100 marks. He was given 7th rank.
The Congress alleged that more than 300 of the 545 candidates had paid Rs 70 to 80 lakh bribe to officials and ministers to become PSIs.
The government handed over the case to CID for further investigation. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths have submitted 1,975 pages of chargesheet against 34 accused persons to the court. The PSI recruitment scandal had made national news as CID sleuths arrested Amrit Paul, a senior IPS officer of the Additional DGP rank. The government has suspended him following the development.
The charge sheet has been submitted to the Third JMFC (Judicial Magistrate of First Class) Court. The charge sheet contains the charges against arrested BJP leader Divya Hagaragi and illegalities that had taken place in Jnana Jyothi English Medium School examination centre in Kalaburagi. The school is owned by Divya Hagargi.
The investigators had arrested BJP leader Divya Hagargi, her husband Rajesh Hagaragi, Afzalpur Block Congress President Mahantesh Patil and his brother RD Patil, who are allegedly close to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Circle Police Inspector Ananda Metri, DySP Mallikarjuna Saali, Irrigation department engineer Manjunatha Melakundi and senior IPS officer Amrit Paul in connection with the case among others.