PSI recruitment scam
Former Minister and Congress MLA Priyank Kharge demanded that the ongoing probe into the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam be expanded to examination centres across Karnataka.
Mr Kharge regretted that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into the PSI recruitment scam was confined to only one examination in Kalaburagi. “Only if the scope of the inquiry is widened can the real beneficiaries of the scam be identified,” he argued.
The persons arrested in the scam so far R D Patil and Divya Hagaragi were only ‘intermediaries’. “On whose behalf were they working? To whom has the money collected by them gone? How were examination centres fixed? Who was deciding which candidate should appear at which examination centre? If you want an answer to all these questions, inquire into all the examinations centres in Bengaluru,” he told reporters in Mysuru.
Alleging irregularities in the selection of 300 out of 545 candidates for the post of PSIs, Mr Kharge said all these 300 suspect candidates could not have possibly written the examination at only one examination centre in Kalaburagi
A look at a few examination centres in Bengaluru has already led to identification of 22 suspects, out of whom 12 were caught, he claimed.
He sought to know the fate of the two FIRs registered in connection with the physical examination of the PSI recruitment process.
Questions re-exam
Mr Kharge questioned the reason behind the government swiftly ordering a re-examination for the recruitment of PSIs soon after BJP leader Divya Hagaragi was arrested.
He questioned the wisdom of the government ordering a re-examination after reportedly promising to allow the selection of honest candidates.
Now, all the 54,000-plus candidates, who had appeared for the examination, are on a warpath with the government, he said.
To a question, Mr Kharge said he will not appear before the CID, which has issued a notice to provide evidence in the PSI recruitment scam. The opposition MLA claimed that even before he had convened a media conference in Kalaburagi to share details of the PSI recruitment scam, Minister for Animal Husbandry Prabhu Chavan had written to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai about the scam.
