Police to quiz accused on role of HSSC member

THE CHIEF MINISTER’S FLYING SQUAD, WHICH HAD BUSTED THE SCAM ON APRIL 5, WILL ALSO FIND THE ROLE OF MORE EMPLOYEES OF STAFF SELECTION COMMISSION IN THE CASE

CHANDIGARH: The chief minister’s flying squad, which arrested five employees of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) among eight persons last week, will interrogate the accused to identify a commission member and find the role of more of its employees in the cash-for-job scam.

The accused — HSSC employees Puneet Saini (hired on contractual basis in IT cell), Anil Kumar, Rohtas Kumar, Sukhwinder Singh (all assistants) and Subhash Sharma (superintendent) — are in the police remand.

The remaining three are Balwan Singh, an employee of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), Surender Singh of irrigation department and one Dharmender Singh, a Panchkula resident who runs a business of providing manpower.

An official privy to the investigation said the accused, Surender, in a telephonic conversation tells the caller (who wanted selection of two sanitary inspectors) that he would get the candidates’ marks increased through a member. Surender tells the caller ``mere ko inke roll number de do, mein member se bol kar number lagwa doonga jo unka interview ke rate hoga bata doonga’’.

The conversation does not end here as Surender continues to tell the caller that “…. Lekin selection ki koi jimmedari nahin hai sirf interview mein number lagwane ki hai ya phir pure selection ka rate karva lo’’ (But I do not take responsibility for their selection as the rate was for only the increase in the marks in the interview and that the caller could strike a deal for candidates’ selection).

Besides the chairman, Bharat Bhushan Bharti, there are 10 members in the HSSC.

Interestingly, some of the accused had fair knowledge that Whatsapp was the safest mode for these transactions. The document quotes them often telling the callers that they should use the mobile messaging application Whatsapp for sending candidates’ details.

The conversations also indicate that the accused took money to get departments of the candidates’ choice.

On April 5, the chief minister’s flying squad had busted the racket wherein the accused HSSC employees allegedly misused their position by identifying the candidates on the merit list who just required pass marks in the interview and contact them through middlemen, and take money by promising them selection.