Main protestor found accused in PSI recruitment exams scam

|HT|

After learning that the results of last October's PSI recruitment exams will be discarded and a fresh exam will be conducted, several PSI exam candidates protested at the Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Friday, demanding posting orders. Of these candidates, Jagrut S, who led the protests after requesting police permission for the same, has now been listed as an accused in the PSI scam. He is one of the 22 candidates, who were found to have tampered with their optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets to secure a higher ranking in the exam. Another protestor, identified as Rachana Hanumanta from North Karnataka, is also named in the FIR.

The other candidates named in the FIR have been identified as Gajendra B, Somanath Mallikarjunanaih Hiremath, Raghuveer H U, Chethan Kumara M C, Venkatesh Gouda B C, Manoj A P, Manukumar G R, Siddalingappa Padashavagi, Mamatesh Gowda S, Yashwanth Gowda H, Narayana C M, Nagesh Gowda C S, Madhu R, Yashwanth Deep C, Dileep Kumar C K, Shivaraja G, Praveen Kumar H R, Surinarayana K, Nagaraj C M and Raghavendra G C.

Moreover, the fresh FIR, filed by CID at the High Grounds police station on Saturday also names seven of the top state-wide rank holders as accused. With more arrests being made everyday, the arrest count in the scam has reached 45. Meanwhile, the ongoing political spat between Congress and the BJP grew louder amid investigations into the police sub-inspector recruitment scam after the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D K Shivkumar alleged that the state's Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan was involved in influencing the Crime Investigation Department's (CID) probe.

Speaking to reporters, D K Shivakumar said, “I don’t have the exact details, but what I got to know is someone either the home minister or some minister has directed the CID officers to release an accused and given instructions that no further inquiry should be conducted against him. That a minister’s younger brother or relatives were also involved in the scam.”

C N Ashwath Narayan then hit back on Monday and stated that the accusations of D K Shivakumar and Congress leader V S Ugrappa against him are baseless and also said that he would take legal action against 'allegations without evidence'.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)