Himachal constable exam: Job aspirants were told to memorise questions

Tribune News Service

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, May 14

The original question papers were never shown to the candidates, who made payments to those who leaked the paper of the written examination for recruitment of constables.

Recruitment process

• 1,700 posts of constable
• 1,87,476 applications received
• 75,803 qualified physical test
• 26,346 cleared the written exam

The candidates were asked to memorise questions and answers by them.

They were taken to isolated places and their mobiles and pens were taken by the miscreants so that they could not click the photograph or write down anything.

Women were also roped in to contact female candidates.

The miscreants contacted the aspiring candidates on the phone and questions were disclosed to over 200 candidates for Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, sources said.

So far, 15 persons have been arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and original certificates of three candidates confiscated and call records and bank details of the accused are being examined.

The police officers associated with the examination process are also under the scanner as it is alleged that only they had the access to the phone numbers of the candidates, who cleared the physical examination and were issued admission cards for the written examination. SIT has also questioned the candidates who scored over 65 per cent in the examination.

On May 11, the IG, Armed Police and Training (AP&T), JP Singh was shifted and posted as IG Police, Appeals Tribunal and Reforms, and ADGP (Law and Order) Abhishek Trivedi has been given the additional charge of the AP&T.

Though the police top brass is tightlipped about the orders issued by the Governor, sources said JP Singh was the custodian of the question papers. The examination was conducted by the armed police and the training wing and two committees were constituted for the setting and printing of the question papers.

As many as 1,87,476 applications were received for the posts and 75,803 candidates qualified the physical efficiency test and physical standards test of which 26,346 had cleared the written examination held at 81 centres across 11 districts to recruit 1,700 constables on March 27.

Leaking of papers has become a common practice in Himachal. Last month, Junior Office Assistant paper was also leaked and examination of undergraduate first and second year conducted by HP University was postponed after the question paper was leaked in three colleges.

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