HSSC assistant sent to judicial custody, SIT recovers ₹2 lakh

PANCHKULA: Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) assistant Anil Kumar, one of the eight accused in the cash-for-job scam, was on Thursday sent to 12-day judicial custody by a local court.

Kumar, who was in police remand, was presented before the court of chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Rohit Watts. The next hearing in the case was fixed on April 24.

The special investigation team (SIT) probing the case submitted before the court that they have recovered Rs 2 lakh from the accused’s Baltana residence.

Two days ago, the prosecution had asked for Kumar’s extended remand to recover cash from his son living in a hostel at Nilokheri, Karnal and from one of his relatives in Jhajjar. However, nothing was recovered in this regard.

Meanwhile, the defence counsel sought the compact disc (CD), transcript and call detail record (CDR) on the basis of which the accused were arrested by the CM’s flying squad.

The prosecution opposed it on the ground that the investigation is in its initial stage and still under progress. The court will give its order for the same on Friday.

The seven other accused were sent to judicial custody on Tuesday. They included four HSSC employees — Puneet Saini (hired on contractual basis in IT cell), Rohtash Kumar, Sukhwinder Singh (all assistants) and Subhash Sharma (superintendent) — and three others namely Balwan Singh, an employee of HUDA, Surender Singh of the irrigation department and one Dharmender Singh, a resident of Panchkula.

They were all arrested by the CM’s flying squad on April 5 last.

The scam is linked to the appointments to the posts of drivers, clerks and nurses, advertised by the commission over a period of one-and-a-half years.

SIT TO SUMMON 30 WITNESSES

Dheeraj Setia, superintendent of police (SP), CM’s flying squad, said, ‘’30 more witnesses will be summoned to join the investigation.’’ Setia said the SIT had so far recovered 12 cell phones, four laptops, three CPUs and six hard discs, which are being scanned.

Besides, the SIT had also recovered files containing documents of successful and unsuccessful candidates from the HSSC premises in Panchkula.

As many as 2,200 calls were intercepted by the SIT after complaints of corruption in the HSSC were received by the CMO since June last year.

DEFENCE SEEKS CALL DETAIL RECORD AND TRANSCRIPT

ON THE BASIS OF WHICH ACCUSED WERE ARRESTED, PROSECUTION OPPOSES