As floods kept everyone busy, hardly anybody had time for what is said to be one of the biggest recruitment scams in state's history
As floods kept everyone busy, hardly anybody had time for what is said to be one of the biggest recruitment scams in state's history
Any other time it would have created a furore. But the devastating floods diverted all attention from what the police say is one of the biggest government recruitment scams in state history.
Believed to run into Rs 100 crore, the scam that involved organised copying in an exam was revealed with the arrest some 20 days ago of seven people, including a man said to be a confidant of cabinet minister Shobha Karandlaje.
While there was a case involving six members of a family taking the first six ranks in a Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) exam in 1998 that smelt of wrongdoing, the money thought to be involved in that was nowhere near what it is in the latest scam.
Those arrested in the latest scam among the ones caught were two Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officers have been accused of stealing question papers and text-messaging the answers to the mobile phones of candidates in exam halls. Held on September 29, the exam was for the post of panchayat development officers.
This should have created a furore
Just two hours before the exam, a bundle of question papers had gone missing.
And, even as the exams were on statewide, the police seized near an exam centre in Gangavathi, Koppal district, a Toyota Innova in which they said the accused were sitting and sending out answers on SMS they also found a bundle of question papers in the car.
Eighteen mobiles were found and, police sources said, more than 3,000 SMS had been sent.
The police also found Rs 9 lakh in the car.
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She had gone on to hand over the recruitment process to a private agency rather than let the KPSC do it.
Merit Track Services Pvt. Ltd, a skills and human resource outsourcing company, handled a part of the examination process and many, including some leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), questioned the criterion applied to select the company.
Karandlaje defended her decisions. "We could not have relied on KPSC because we wanted the process to be speedy and Merit Track is a professional company," she said. "The whole process was transparent."
She also said the government, instead of being blamed, should be credited for arresting the scam accused.
"I know irregularities are happening and we won't spare anybody," she said. "You should credit us for having arrested so many."
On alleged ringleader Vittal Chavan, who is said to be close to her, she claimed she did not know the man.
"I don't know who he is and any allegations against me are baseless," she said.
Political silence
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who had sacked housing minister Krishniah Setty for his alleged involvement in a land scam, has this time chosen to remain silent. Karandlaje is said to be close to him.
"Even the media did not talk about this scam as everyone was busy in flood coverage. But I am surprised why the opposition leaders are not talking about it," said a BJP source.
Among the opposition, except for Congress state working president D K Shivakumar, no one has raised his voice on the issue.
While declining to comment on the scam, Gonal Bhimappa, chairman of KPSC, said, "It is the government's prerogative to go for direct recruitment, but what I can say is that there are fewer irregularities if exams are in the hands of KPSC."
Madan Padaki, CEO and co-founder of Merit Track, said the firm had no role to play once the exams had started.
"We have nothing to do with the scam as we are only involved in identifying the examination centres and making them exam-ready," Padaki said.
The police believe 2,000 of the 2,800 candidates who appeared for the exam paid sums ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh to the accused to get answers on their mobile phones.
"We are tracing the calls and messages sent from the seized mobiles. It is a tedious process. The scam seems to be deep-rooted," said Eswarchandra Vidyasagar, superintendent of police, Koppal. "The investigation was slowed because of the flood situation, but now it has been speeded up."
The ringleader and the bunch he hired
The police say the ringleader in the exam scam is a man called Vittal Chavan. He is said to be a confidant of Shobha Karandlaje, and has often been spotted at the minister's home.
The police say the others were hired to play well-defined roles.
Anjaneya Swamy, an excise department sub-inspector, brought in candidates willing to pay for answers on their mobile phones as they wrote their exam, say the police. College lecturers Siddarameswara and Sanjiv Jumar are said to have assisted Swamy. Hanunthappa Theli, a Karnataka Administrative Service probationer waiting for an assistant commissioner posting in the commercial tax deportment, is said to be a maths genius who used to run a coaching centre for administrative services aspirants in Dharwad. The police say he was hired to answer the exam questions from the papers stolen two hours before the exam.
Balaswamy, an assistant commissioner in the commercial tax department, assisted Theli in answering the questions, said the police. Srikant Jadav was hired for his text messaging speed, said the police.
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