THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what could mar the integrity of the PSC, the SIT investigation on the recruitment exam scandal has revealed that the rank list for the post of chief of Industry and Infrastructure Department in the Planning Board was prepared by sabotaging the whole evaluation procedure.
The exam was conducted for filling only one post that carried an alluring pay of Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.62 lakh. The candidate, who came first in the rank list, was a CPM-affiliated service organisation member, who had worked in the Water Authority.
The subversion came to fore after the candidates came to know that answers for 10 questions were left unevaluated. The SIT probe found that the person who came first had given four wrong answers, while leaving six questions unattended.
Those 10 answers furnished by rest of the candidates were not evaluated, which proved that the exam evaluation procedure was totally botched. SIT sources said if the evaluation was done fairly, the person who came second in the rank list would have led the first-rank holder by 53 marks. If the exam and subsequent procedures were carried out in a proper manner, the first-rank holder would not have featured even in the supplementary rank list, sources added.
PSC chairman M R Baiju and two other board members, who had conducted interviews for the above-mentioned post, will be questioned by the SIT soon. The first-rank holder had secured 36 marks out of 40 in the interview, while the candidate who came second bagged just 11. The SIT will serve notice to the PSC chairman most likely on Friday summoning him for questioning.
Sources also indicated that preliminary probe suggested illegal financial transactions could have taken place in connection with some recruitment and hence the Prevention of Corruption Act was invoked to ascertain it. “We do have such a doubt and that can only be established after a detailed probe,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the computers used in the evaluation section has been sealed and their logs collected by the SIT for digital scrutiny.
The preliminary probe had covered just one exam and the detailed investigation will look into several other exams whose conduct has been under scanner. The SIT till now has received about 90 complaints and detailed investigation will be done on all of those.
