BENGALURU: The Lokayukta police will submit its report on alleged irregularities in the appointment of 197 assistant public prosecutors and assistant government pleaders, to the Lokayukta special court by January-end.
According to an official source, Lokayukta officials registered an FIR recently on a petition by lawyer H T Ravi, and served a notice to former director of prosecution Chandrashekhar Hiremath to appear before them.
Ravi, one of the applicants, had accused Hiremath of committing large-scale irregularities, including inserting answer scripts during post-valuation and graft, during the selection process. Hiremath was the director in-charge of prosecution and member-secretary of the selection committee. He retired in June last year, a month after conducting the selection.
C A Raveendra, the petitioner’s counsel, told Express that the accused had moved an anticipatory bail application after the Lokayukta police registered the FIR.
He added that they would oppose the application when it came up for hearing on Tuesday. “Genuine candidates, who could not afford to meet the demand for money, were deprived from joining the judicial service,” he alleged.
He claimed that this appointment scam was bigger than the recent KPSC scam, which resulted in the scrapping of the appointment of over 352 probationary KAS officers.
Prima facie there appears to be large-scale misconduct in the selection of candidates, he said, and added that caution and due diligence should have been adopted during selection.
Ravi told Express, “Touts had approached several candidates promising them the post for a certain amount. Once a fair investigation is held, more skeletons will tumble out of the cupboard.”