NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided 18 locations across four cities in Tamil Nadu in connection with the alleged state government polytechnic lecturer recruitment examination scam.
The raids were carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at various locations in Chennai, Trichy, Coimbatore and Madurai, the officials said.
The federal probing agency initiated its money laundering probe based on a First Information Report filed in 2017 by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Greater Chennai Police and a chargesheet filed by state police in 2021.
The case involves the alleged manipulation of answer sheets and mark sheets in a Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) examination for 1,058 lecturer posts at government polytechnic colleges.
The examination was conducted on September 16, 2017, for 1,058 lecturer posts, with around 1.33 lakh candidates appearing for the test. During the recruitment process, nearly 2,000 candidates were shortlisted for certificate verification. However, investigators found that the marks of approximately 200 candidates had allegedly been inflated by 50 to 100 marks, enabling them to qualify for the next stage of selection.
According to the investigating agency, candidates who secured eligibility through the allegedly falsified marks paid between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh each to agents in exchange for selection as government lecturers.
The federal probing agency suspects that TRB officials or staff members were involved in the racket, though no action had been taken without evidence at the time. The scam came to light after the TRB cross-verified marks of shortlisted candidates against original answer scripts prompting it to withdraw results declared on November 7, 2017, and publish a revised list on December 11 that year.
The agency is also examining the suspected involvement of intermediaries and others linked to the recruitment process, and further investigation is underway. The CCB had filed cases against around 196 candidates in the matter.
