BENGALURU: The Justice B Veerappa committee, constituted to investigate the police sub-inspector (PSI) recruitment scam, submitted its report to the government on Monday, recommending further investigation by the CID.
Justice Veerappa, who is a retired Karnataka High Court judge, presented the 471-page report in a sealed cover to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. In the report, he has pointed to serious lapses by the police and people’s representatives.
Whether any names, especially of people’s representatives, are mentioned in the report will be known after it is tabled for discussion in the legislature.
The report will be placed before the cabinet for discussion and later tabled in the Assembly and Council to get the clearance for further action. Since it is a criminal offence probed by an independent judicial commission, the report is final and there is no need to set up another prosecution commission. The CID now has to file an additional chargesheet before the court on the report’s findings.
The commission, appointed in July 2023, marked 324 documents, recorded the statements of 28 witnesses and authenticated 117 accused mentioned in the 16 reports filed by the police. An expert commented that the statement of the then ADGP (recruitment) Amrit Paul, who was arrested in the scam, should have been recorded before a judge and more skeletons would have tumbled out.
The scam had rattled the BJP government led by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai with Congress alleging the involvement of certain leaders within the government. The CID filed FIRs against 110 accused, including Amrit Paul. The cases were also filed against 52 candidates, who have been barred from appearing in any examinations in future.
The government issued a notification to recruit 545 PSIs (civil) on January 21, 2021 and 54,103 candidates appeared for written exams which were held on October 3, 2021.
Re-exmination today
The government was planning to conduct a re-examination but put it off as some candidates moved the High Court. The exam will now be held on Tuesday with over 55,000 candidates enrolled.