THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Substantiating the findings of the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) Vigilance Cell, the Crime Branch team probing the PSC exam fraud has recovered pieces of evidence against SFI leaders accused of manipulating the examination to sneak into the police constable ranklist.
Crime Branch sources said they conducted searches at the residences of University College stabbing case accused R Sivarenjith, AN Naseem and PP Pranav and recovered some electronic devices that were used to commit the fraud.
The Crime Branch sources were evasive when asked whether the mobile phones used by the accused during the exam were seized from their houses. However, they said the seized gadgets have been found useful in the ongoing probe. “The pieces of evidence from the equipment prima facie have given credence to the allegation raised against the SFI leaders,” said sources.
The PSC Vigilance Cell had found that the trio had committed fraud to make it to the list of police constable recruits. The Vigilance had found that the answer to the exam questions were sent as SMSs to the three mobile phones. Smartphones were also used for cheating, they had found.
Jail shifted
The Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Court has allowed the request of Sivarenjith and Naseem for a jail transfer. The two, who are in judicial custody for stabbing a student on the University College campus, approached the court asking for a transfer from the district jail to the Central Jail. The duo had alleged that they faced security threat in the district prison from some of the inmates.
Meanwhile, the bail plea of Sivarenjith in the forgery case was dismissed by the court.