Court dismisses bail pleas of 3 TNPSC scam accused

CHENNAI: The Principal District and Sessions Court dismissed three bail applications filed by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) exam scam accused on Friday.

The petitions were moved by Vinoth Kumar, Srinivasan and Rajasekaran, who were arrested in connection with the scam. The prosecution alleged that Vinoth Kumar paid around 9 lakh to get the job in Group 2A posts in the Revenue Department and started working in his native district.

Srinivasan and his relative Rajasekaran were arrested for paying Rs 7 lakh each to the middleman to get Village Administrative Officers post.

Judge R Selvakumar, before whom the bail applications came up, dismissed it after City Public Prosecutor Gowri Ashokan opposed the petitions and said that the investigation is at the preliminary stage and releasing the accused on bail would hurdle the investigations.

It may be noted that the court had dismissed bail petitions filed by two accused on Thursday.

CB-CID arrests VAO

The CB-CID on Friday arrested a 29-year-old Village Administrative Officer from Villupuram in connection with the 2016 VAO examination malpractice. The VAO was identified as Amal Raj from Gingee, He was posted at Anthiyur village, Villupuram.

Including the latest, the number of arrest has reached 46 in the three TNPSC scam cases. The CBCID is probing the malpractices in Group IV held in 2019, group IIA held in 2017 and VAO examination conducted in the year 2016.

Meanwhile, sources said that two others — Selvedran of Trichy and Prabakaran of Kolathur, linked to TNPSC scam — surrendered before a court on Friday. Selvendran is believed to be a close associate of the key accused and Prabakaran had cleared 2019 group V examination by paying money to Jayakumar.