By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 17 Oct: According to sources in the Vigilance Department, the inquiry has revealed that OMR answer sheets (Optical Mark Recognition Sheet) used by the candidates for the written test conducted for recruitment of Police Sub Inspectors in the state had been rigged and they had been deliberately burnt in order to erase evidence at GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology by the conspirators. In this connection, sources claimed that more arrests are likely to be made soon. So far, out of 12 persons identified as accused in this case, five are already in jail in other cases. The investigation is still underway and sources claim significant progress.
According to the State Vigilance Department which is conducting the investigation into the Sub Inspectors recruitment scam, OMR sheets had been destroyed at the University in violation of the rules in order to erase any possible evidence. The investigation has revealed that OMR Sheets of other tests that had been conducted by the University earlier had been preserved. Hence, the question remains why the OMR sheets in this particular test had been burnt.
In this regard, the officers of the university have been questioned recently. The Vigilance Department is expected to initiate direct action against the officials responsible for burning the OMR sheets.
It may be recalled that rigging in the written test held for recruitment of Sub Inspectors of Uttarakhand Police held in 2015 was detected during the scrutiny of the graduation level examination. It was found that, out of the total 339 recruits, at least 10 percent of the Sub Inspectors were selected by manipulating the OMR sheets. When the OMR sheets were demanded by the investigating officers, they were not made available to them by the university officials concerned. It was stated that these OMR sheets had been weeded out. However, investigation revealed that OMR sheets of previously conducted examinations were still preserved, thus raising strong suspicion of their deliberate destruction. The investigation also revealed that the proper and prescribed procedure for weeding out old records had not been followed in this case. As per the prescribed procedure, a committee has to be formed to weed out old records and, only with its approval, can the records be destroyed. No committee was formed in this case and no approval had been provided for weeding out the OMR Sheets for the recruitment of the Sub Inspectors. The consent issued for this is not even signed by the chairman and some members. In such a situation, the OMR sheets are believed to have been destroyed to erase evidence of manipulation. An officer was questioned for seven hours three days ago. Now, in the investigation, many such facts have come to the fore, in which new arrests can also be made. Officers and employees who destroyed the OMR are likely to be arrested soon, claim the sources.
