DEHRADUN: The BJP government in Uttarakhand, which has been mired in scams and paper leaks in government recruitment exams for a long time, has again been embarrassed following the alleged involvement of a party leader in a new scam.
A case has been registered against nine people, including BJP leader Sanjay Dhariwal, in connection with the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission’s junior engineer (JE) and assistant engineer (AE) exam paper leak case. It is being said that a senior elected leader of the district had mediated in this, while a nominated BJP leader from Roorkee area had also made a recommendation for the accused.
SSP Haridwar Ajay Singh told this daily, “The SIT has arrested three accused on Saturday for allegedly leaking questions in the Public Service Commission’s JE/AE exam fraud. A total of Rs 7 lakh was recovered in illegally earned cash and blank cheques of various banks from the possession of three accused Sanjeev Kumar, Nitin Chauhan and Sunil Saini. At present, the BJP has distanced itself from Dhariwal. It is believed that after reports of irregularities in the AE and JE recruitment case, the police considered the role of Sanjay Dhariwal of Mangalore suspicious in the investigation and as soon as this information reached the party leadership, Dhariwal submitted his resignation from the post of mandal president to Roorkee district president on January 23.
Earlier, the party came under attack from the opposition congress after the arrest of Hakam Singh in connection with the paper leak case of the Subordinate Service Selection Commission’s graduate recruitment examination. After Hakam Singh, Sanjay Dhariwal’s name who was the BJP Mandal president has surfaced in the recruitment scam.
Commenting on Sanjay Dhariwal, Congress state spokesperson Garima Mahara Dasoni said, “This entire episode exposed the BJP’s strategy, character and face and how their senior leaders were involved in scams and corruption”. “So far, 54 people have been arrested in the recruitment scam,” an STF spokesperson added.