CBI raids at 30 places in Jammu, Srinagar, Bengaluru in SI exam leak

CBI teams searching a house in Jammu on Friday. — Excelsior/Rakesh
CBI teams searching a house in Jammu on Friday. — Excelsior/Rakesh

BSF MO, BJP DDC member’s kin among 33 booked

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 5: In a major crackdown on the accused involved in leakage of question paper of Sub Inspectors in Jammu and Kashmir Police, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) today conducted raids at 30 locations in Jammu, Srinagar and Bengaluru after registration of FIR against 33 persons including three former officers of Service Selection Board (SSB), a BSF Medical Officer, an ASI of police, former CRPF official and son and brother of BJP DDC member from Bhalwal Brahamana Bushan Bral.
Office of M/s MeritTrac Services Private Limited was searched at Bengaluru at its headquarters as the agency had been hired by the SSB for conduct of written examination, official sources told the Excelsior.
Residences of beneficiaries, who had paid money for purchase of question paper, were also searched besides two Libraries of Akhnoor which were at the centre of controversy for first purchasing the paper and passing it on to all youth studying there. All of them took good marks in the written exams.
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Houses of beneficiaries were mostly located at Akhnoor, Khour and Kanachak areas, sources said.
They added that a total of 30 locations, 28 of them in Jammu division, and one each in Srinagar and Bengaluru were searched while FIR has been lodged against 33 persons.
Three former SSB officials, who have been booked by the CBI, are Narayan Dutt, a JKAS officer and then member of the Board, Bishan Dass, then Under Secretary and Anju Raina, then Section Officer.
BSF Medical Officer Dr Karnail Singh, who was posted at BSF Frontier Headquarters at Paloura has also been booked and his residence was searched by the CBI at Patoli near TV Tower under the jurisdiction of Domana Police Station.
Ashok Kumar, an ASI of JKP, Ashwani Kumar, former CRPF official, Avinash Gupta, owner and Akshay Kumar, Manager of EDUMAX Library at Akhnoor, Roshan Bral, a ReT teacher and Sourav Sharma, both brother and son of BJP DDC member from Bhalwal Brahamana, Bushan Bral, who also run a Library at Bhalwal Brahamana have also been included in the FIR and their houses were raided today.
Other persons, who have been named in the FIR and whose houses were raided today, are Sourav Sharma, Sunil Kumar Verma, Jay Suriya Sharma, Rohit Choudhary, Ravi Kumar, Kapil Sharma, Paras Sharma, Sumit Sharma, Shubham Patyar, Sahil Patyar, Rahul Singh, Mamta Langeh, Rohit Langeh, Rahul Sharma, Dheeraj Sharma, Tarlok Singh, Sachdev Singh, Anshuman Sharma, Aakash Jalotra, Ankita Sharma and Shubam Kala.
An official statement issued by the CBI said the case was registered on the allegations of irregularities in written examination for the post of Sub Inspectors conducted on March 27 by the Services Selection Board. The results were declared on June 6.
“There were allegations regarding malpractices in the examination. The Jammu and Kashmir Government had constituted an Inquiry Committee to look into the charges. It was alleged that the accused entered into conspiracy among officials of SSB, Bengaluru based private company, beneficiary candidates and others,” the statement said.
This resulted into gross irregularities in conduct of written examination for the posts of Sub Inspector.
The statement said there was abnormally high percentage of selected candidates from Jammu, Samba and Rajouri districts.
It added that violation of rules by SSB was allegedly found in assigning the task of setting question paper to Bengaluru company.
Last month, the Jammu and Kashmir administration cancelled the police Sub-Inspector recruitment following allegations of irregularities and recommended a CBI probe into the selection process.
It was alleged that there were irregularities in the written examination conducted on March 27.
Sources said some incriminating documents, digital devices and mobile telephones etc were examined and seized during the searches.