LUCKNOW: Following the allegations of paper leak, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday cancelled the police constable recruitment examination and ordered a re-test within the next six months.
In a statement, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said that those who used unfair means during the exam conducted on February 17 and 18 across the state will face the strictest action.
“Those involved in using unfair means and breaching the secrecy of the
examination are under the radar of Special Task Force (STF) of UP police, and some big arrests have happened,” the CM was quoted as saying in the statement.
The CM said that there won’t be any compromise with the sanctity of the
examination while assuring the applicants that those who tried to play around with their hard work would be dealt with an iron fist.
The decision to cancel the recruitment drive was taken by the CM on Saturday after reviewing the evidence of an alleged paper leak at a high level meeting with the UP DGP, ADG (Law and Order), Principal Secretary, Home.
However, the probe into the alleged leak of the paper was handed over to the UPSTF. Considered to be one of the biggest recruitment drives by any state government, the examination to fill the posts of 60,244 police constables was held on February 17-18, wherein a total of 48 lakh candidates appeared. In all 50 lack applicants had filled out the forms. The examination was held at a total of 2,378 examination centres across all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
There were allegations of a suspected paper leak following a complaint submitted by Inspector Ram Babu Singh at Lucknow’s Krishna Nagar police station.
In his complaint, Singh said, “On February 18, I was on duty along with others when we saw that candidate Satya Aman Kumar was filling up his OMR sheet by copying from a sheet of paper… He had been brought to the examination control room. Initially, he denied any wrongdoing, but after he was asked strictly, he said that his friend Neeraj had told him that he would get him a solved question paper in exchange for money. He sent me a sheet of paper on my phone which had all the right answers. And I copied those answers on a sheet of paper and brought it to the examination.”
The case was lodged under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, under the Information Technology Act, and the Uttar Pradesh Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act.
Notably, there had been protests by the candidates in various districts including the state capital Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra and Prayagraj over the paper leak allegations. The protestors had been demanding the cancellation of the examination.
A senior police officer said, “Both accused have been arrested and sent to judicial custody. We are investigating the case.” As per the STF sources, so far 22 persons were arrested in connection with the fraud. The state government directed the Police Recruitment Board to lodge the FIR initiating legal action against those authorities which remained complacent during the examination.
Earlier, the Police Recruitment Board had constituted an internal committee to verify claims made on social media about a paper leak after the examination was completed. The committee was also tasked with assessing improvements required for future recruitments. A senior officer stated that they had requested individuals who claimed the question paper was leaked to provide evidence.
AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also slammed the UP government on Friday over paper leak allegations demanding a CBI inquiry and strict action against the culprits. Referring to the police recruitment exam, she said more than 50 lakh youths filled up forms for the test and this was the biggest examination in the history of the state.