VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada police arrested Pamidikalva Madhusudhan, also known as Dhatri Madhu, in Hyderabad on Tuesday in connection with alleged irregularities in the evaluation of the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) Group-1 examination, 2018.
Madhu, listed as A2 in the case, is one of the directors of Camsign Media Private Limited, which conducted the digital evaluation of the exam papers. Senior IPS officer PSR Anjaneyulu has already been named as A1 in the evaluation case.
The APPSC had issued a notification for recruiting 169 Group-1 posts in 2018, mentioning that the evaluation would be conducted manually.
However, despite this, the government opted for digital evaluation, citing the Covid-19 pandemic, for the mains exams held from December 14 to 20, 2020, which were attended by 6,807 candidates.
The government entrusted the evaluation of answer sheets to Camsign Media Ltd, a private company, which conducted the evaluation under the surveillance of CCTV cameras at the APPSC office, and another centre.
The list of qualified candidates was announced on April 28, 2021.
Notably, the previous government had the evaluation done digitally again, paying Rs 1.14 crore to Camsign Media. This evaluation yielded unusual results, with nine candidates receiving the same marks and some scoring over 99%.
Suspecting irregularities during the evaluation process, some aspirants filed a petition in the High Court, which led a single bench to cancel the Group-1 main examinations. However, a week later, the High Court issued an interim stay order suspending the single bench’s order.
The stay order completed one year by March, and when it was recently brought before the court, the division bench adjourned the hearing after the summer vacation.
On Monday, the police conducted a search operation at Madhu’s house and seized key documents.
After interrogation, they arrested Madhu on Tuesday and subsequently brought him to Vijayawada to produce him before the magistrate.