CBI arrests 7 more in J&K Police SI recruitment scam

Police, CRPF men among those held; raids were conducted at seven locations in J&K, Punjab and Haryana on Tuesday

JAMMU: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday said seven more persons, including some police personnel, have been arrested in connection with the alleged manipulation of recruitment process for sub-inspectors in Jammu and Kashmir Police. The accused were produced in the court of chief judicial magistrate, Jammu.

“CBI has arrested seven persons, including head constable and constables of CRPF and an ASI of J&K Police, in an ongoing investigation of a case related to the recruitment scam,” said an official spokesperson of the CBI.

The probing agency had arrested 13 persons in connection with the case earlier.

The case pertains to the leak of question paper for the examination through which 1,200 posts of sub-inspectors were to be filled by the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board.

CBI had registered a case on August 3 on the request of J&K administration against 33 people, including then medical officer, BSF Jammu frontier headquarters, then member of J&K Services Selection Board (JKSSB); then under secretary, then section officer of JKSSB, an ex-official of CRPF, an ASI of J&K Police, owner of a coaching centre at Akhnoor; a private company based at Bengaluru; private persons and other unidentified persons on the allegations of irregularities in the written examination.

The exam was conducted by JKSSB on March 27 and results were declared on June 4.

“There were allegations regarding malpractices in the examination. The J&K government had constituted an inquiry committee to look into the same,” said the spokesperson.

It was further alleged that there was abnormally high percentage of selected candidates from Jammu, Rajouri and Samba districts.

Violation of rules by JKSSB was allegedly found in assigning the task of setting question paper to the Bengaluru-based private company. “Investigation has revealed that alleged payment of ₹20 to ₹30 lakh was made by willing candidates and their families to the accused for accessing the question paper before commencement of the examination,” he added.

“Searches were earlier conducted at various locations in several states, including J&K, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka that led to recovery of a large number of incriminating documents and digital evidences,” the spokesperson said. Of 13 accused arrested earlier, nine are presently in judicial custody and four in police custody. On Tuesday, the CBI had conducted raids at seven locations in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana.

Those arrested were CRPF constable Kashmir Singh; IRP constable, J&K Police, Vikas Sharma from Jammu; CRPF constable Atul Kumar and one Tarsem Lal from Pathankot; CRPF constable Surender Singh and Yatin Yadav from Rewari and Sulinder from Karnal.