After constable exam paper leak, HP Police bar shoes, jackets, ornaments for re-exam
SHIMLA: : Taking no chances after the police constable recruitment leak in March, the Himachal Pradesh Police have asked the examinees taking the re-examination on Sunday to wear slippers and flip-flops and not socks and shoes to the examination hall. The examinees have been prohibited from wearing jackets and metal ornaments, too, to rule out the use of unfair means. The police department is holding the exam again after the paper was leaked on March 27. “Come wearing light clothes and bathing slippers and don’t wear any metal ornaments,” reads the list of instructions for the candidates.
As many as 75,803 candidates had appeared for the exam at 81 centres across 11 districts of the state. The police have so far arrested 171 people, from historysheeters to cricket organisers, an engineer, a transporter, a railway clerk, and even an income tax officer. Those arrested include touts, fathers of nine candidates, 116 examinees who bought papers, and 46 middlemen of 21 are agents from the state who helped the kingpin spread his network before of the exam. They have been booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence or proving false information) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. This time, police have sent call letters to examinees via SMS on their mobile numbers. The aspirants have been asked to reach the examination venue three hours before the start of the paper. Metal detectors have been installed at the centres to frisk candidates. The candidates have been barred from carrying any kind of electronic device, such as mobile phone, laptop, calculator, earphones, Bluetooth device, besides books and magazines.
“We have put multi-tiered access control and security system in place for the written examination to prevent foul play and unfair means. An inspector general (IG) and a deputy inspector general (DIG) have been appointed as observer each for a range on the lines of Election Commission duty to independently monitor the written examination process,” said state director general of police Sanjay Kundu.
The police have constituted a five-member committee for conducting the examination. An official spokesman said the state government has issued instructions to provide free travelling facility to the candidates appearing in police recruitment test being held in different parts of the state on July 3 in HRTC ordinary buses.