Bihar’s latest ‘paper leak and job scam’ might turn out to be bigger than its predecessor, the ‘topper scam’, with the initial police probe pointing to a nexus between senior government officials, middlemen, organised job racketeers and examinees in the multi-crore racket. Meanwhile, the Bihar State Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) examination scheduled for Sunday has been cancelled due the exam paper being leaked on social media. In another development, BSSC Secretary Parmeshwar Ram has been arrested.
It is now confirmed that the question papers for the inter-level combined competitive preliminary BSSC examination were indeed leaked, jeopardising the future of 18 lakh examinees vying for around 9,600 lower-grade government jobs in the state.
BSSC Chairman Sudhir Kumar on Wednesday told reporters that the question papers were leaked prior to the exam.
The irregularities pertaining to BSSC’s recruitment test came to the fore on Sunday when students and a section of the media alleged that the question papers were leaked before the first two phases of the exam on January 29 and February 5. The BSSC, however, had initially denied it.
On February 6, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered a high-level probe into the allegations and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of police led by Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj was constituted to probe it. After interrogation of over 24 hours, BSSC Secretary Ram was arrested and an FIR was lodged against him on Wednesday, Maharaaj said, adding, “Several others have also been detained and preliminary investigations have revealed that that a racket was operating in Bihar.”
At least six cases have been lodged across Bihar in this connection, all of which will now be probed by the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) after statewide raids exposed documents relating to several crores of rupees being involved in the scam.
EOU sources said a case of disproportionate assets would be lodged against BSSC Secretary Ram following a raid at his house, from where several documents were seized by them.
Sources say that the scam, which is still unravelling, could be larger than last year’s intermediate topper scam of the Bihar School Examination Board, in which about 11.5 lakh examinees had written the papers. “In the topper scam, degrees were at stake. This time it’s jobs that were being sold,” an official, who is associated with the investig-ation, said.
EXAM CANCELLED
Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday announced cancellation of the examination conducted by the Bihar State Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) for recruitment of clerks in state government jobs in the wake of an alleged paper leak. “On the basis of a preliminary report of state police chief PK Thakur and recommendation of chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, the state government has cancelled the BSSC exam for clerical grade appointment,” Kumar told reporters here, accompanied by the Chief Secretary and other officials.
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