KASARGOD: The alleged scam in the direct recruitment of postmen and mail guards in the Department of Post is likely to get a quiet burial with a top officer ruling out the possibility of a question paper leak, and the police uninterested in pursuing the case.
On Sunday, a candidate from Haryana was caught with a mobile phone from the examination hall which had the answer keys for all the 100 questions, which included questions in Malayalam. The invigilator grew suspicious after seeing the candidate, Gulbant, answering questions in Malayalam and reported the incident. He was later taken into custody by the police.
Though the police charged him with cheating, they were not keen to investigate the case, said a top officer.
“For the police here, there is no case beyond cheating and he will be out on bail soon,” he said on condition of anonymity. “A national investigation agency should take up the probe to expose the nexus between India Post officers and racketeers,” he said.
S Srirangan, assistant director (Recruitment), Department of Post, told Express the question paper was not leaked. “There was an attempt to cheat and the invigilator caught him,” he said.When asked if the confidentiality of the question paper was compromised, he said he did not think so.
“In any case, the police should say if there was a leak,” he said over phone from Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.But the police said it was a question the Department of Post should answer. Also, no answers are forthcoming as to how the accused get answers without someone getting access to the question paper in advance.
However, the department had a whiff of the scam.
In December, when the Tamil Nadu postal circle conducted an exam for the same post, candidates from Haryana and Maharashtra topped the test in all the 47 circles of the state. The candidates scored more than 90 per cent even in the Tamil section. Eventually, 150 of the 300 recruits in the state were from Haryana and Maharashtra.
In Kerala, too, 800 candidates from Haryana had applied for the post. Not to repeat the mistake, the department set up two special centres in Kasargod and assigned all candidates from Haryana to them, said an officer. The police were asked to erect metal detectors and frisk all the candidates. Pens and pencils were provided by the department.When the venue was changed to Kasargod, many candidates from Haryana backed off. Only 300 hall tickets were downloaded from the Kerala postal circle’s portal.
On the day of the examination, 170 candidates from Haryana turned up at the two centres in Kasargod -- Government Arts and Science College, and Chinmaya Vidyalaya.
In all 186 candidates wrote the examination in the two centres. An officer said less than 10 were from Kerala.
Gulbant managed to beat the security and entered the hall with his mobile phone. Kasargod town police sub inspector Ajith Kumar K took one Harish from Haryana into preventive custody after finding a mobile phone and headset with him.
A top officer said these charges were not grave and both would be out soon
In December, when the Tamil Nadu postal circle conducted an exam for the same post, candidates from Haryana and Maharashtra topped the test in all the 47 circles of the state.
In Kerala, too, 800 candidates from Haryana had applied for the post.