40 govt staff under SOG lens for sitting on paper leak info
JAIPUR: The Special Operation Group (SOG) of Rajasthan has identified 40 government employees, including a few police officers, who sit on the leads related to paper leak cases, said an official familiar with the development on Thursday. The department has formed a special cell to take action against them.
“These 40 persons include DSP (deputy superintendent of police), SI (sub-inspectors), constable, teachers, engineers, and also employees from other government departments who had information before or after a paper being leaked. Their tip-off could have also prevented many such leaks or helped the department arrest the culprits sooner. We have formed a special cell with a few SOG officials to gather necessary evidence against them and take immediate action,” said additional deputy general of police (ADGP) VK Singh who is also the in-charge of the special investigating team (SIT) for probing paper leak cases.
He added that many of these 40 employees may also have personal relations with the accused of several paper leak cases due to which they deliberately chose to sit on the information in order to help them qualifying the examinations.
“Relatives of the 15 SIs who were arrested last week for their involvement in SI-2021 paper leak case are on the list. Many of them have also directly helped to steal the papers, setting up dummy candidates, etc,” he said.
According to Singh, “We have also found that a few of them were already suspended from their jobs after the involvement was found. However, the formal inquiry and the action against them were delayed. Our cell was specially tasked to gather evidence by initiating inquiry, and take immediate action against them.”
The ADGP also stated the team requested chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on Thursday to get the rest of the employees suspended from their jobs immediately.
“We sought the co-ordination of other departments to initiate formal inquiry against these 40 employees. We are expecting a positive response in this regard in the next few days,” he added.
The SOG on Thursday submitted a progress report of the SIT to the CM during a review meeting.
“CM appreciated the team’s performance and informed that the government is receiving positive feedback from the people on our work,” said Singh.
The CM has also assured the SIT of providing with necessary resources for their investigation in the future.
“We have informed him about our limitations, particularly the lack of a few IT experts. He sought a detailed report on our requirements and assured to take them into consideration,” said Singh.
The SIT was formed on December 16 last year, a day after CM Sharma took the oath.
On Thursday, the CM also indicated to give more significant responsibilities to the SOG in future.
“He asked us to make sure no accused in the paper leak cases gets rid of. If we get more responsibility in the future, we will not disappoint him,” said Singh.
Meanwhile, the SOG officials also mentioned that the department has found a link with a few Haryana-based gangsters in several paper leak cases.
“Prima facie, Unique Bhambhu who is accused in JEN 2020 and SI 2021 paper leak cases used to supply men from Haryana-based gangs to circulate exam papers from the centre from where the paper was leaked. Bhambhu is an associate of infamous paper leak mafia Jagadish Bishnoi. He is currently on the run. Many other accused have also mentioned similar links. However, the gangs and its members are yet to be verified,” said Singh.