The Karnataka government has cancelled all PSI recruitments following allegations of irregularities in the recruitment of police sub-inspectors. The Karnataka Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) examination was held in October 2021 for 545 police sub-inspector posts with 54,289 candidates appearing for it. Now, the government has decided that candidates who wrote the exam can appear for it again, except the ones who have been arrested by the CID.
The Karnataka government’s decision comes hours after the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested the alleged kingpin of the PSI recruitment scandal, BJP leader Divya Hagaragi, who had been absconding for the past 18 days. A CID special team headed by DCP Prakash Rathod took Divya Hagaragi into custody from Pune in Maharashtra.
Divya was one of the main accused in the scam as the candidate who got good marks despite attempting only a few questions appeared at the institution that is run by her. A candidate named Viresh from Kalaburagi wrote the exam at the Jnana Jyothi English Medium school in the district. Viresh scored 121 marks though he only attempted some 20-odd questions. Viresh’s marks became a matter of public debate after a friend leaked them. This was because Viresh reportedly refused to pay touts and his friend, who had introduced him to the touts, came under pressure.
The CID which is investigating the case believes that Divya asked invigilators to fill the OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) sheets in the last few minutes of the exam.
Her husband Rajesh Hagaragi was taken into custody last week. Archana, the exam superintendent at Jnanajyothi English School, and three others have now also been taken into custody for giving shelter to Divya for the past 18 days. Six police teams were formed for arresting Divya Hagaragi as the ruling BJP was repeatedly questioned by Congress and alleged that it is giving shelter to her.
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The CID probing the case had earlier summoned Congress MLA Priyank Kharge, who had released an audio recording of a conversation purportedly between a middleman and a candidate about the allotment of examination centres. The audio also spoke about malpractices — including allocating more marks than what the candidate has actually scored — that would be allowed. CID has now served a second notice to the Congress MLA to appear before them in connection with the scandal.
On Wednesday, the Karnataka government transferred ADGP Recruitment Amrit Paul. The police have arrested 16 persons in connection with the scandal so far including both BJP and Congress leaders. The examinations for the 545 posts of PSIs were held in October last year. As many as 54,041 candidates appeared for exams. The results were announced this January.
Later, allegations surfaced that candidates who gave a very poor performance in descriptive writing got maximum marks in Paper 2. However, the police department and the Home Minister denied any irregularities in 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 say that Viresh, the candidate, had attended only 21 questions in paper 2 but got 100 marks. He was given the seventh rank.
Congress MLA Priyank Kharge had alleged that more than 300 of the 545 candidates had paid Rs 70 to 80 lakh bribes to officials and ministers to become PSI. The ruling BJP has challenged him to produce evidence before CID.