Odisha: CMO tip blows lid off SI exam scam, scanner on multiple agencies

BHUBANESWAR: Three days after police arrested 117 persons - 114 of them applicants - for the now-postponed Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE) 2024 for recruitment sub-inspectors (SIs), exposing serious leakages in the system, investigation has remained undecided on how the question papers were compromised.

The examination, conducted by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB), was awarded to ITI Limited, a central PSU.

The public sector undertaking further sub-contracted the work to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab.

The tender was worth about Rs 3 crore. Sources said, Silicon Techlab sublet key tasks to another agency, Panchsoft Technologies Private Limited. So far, Odisha Police has remained tight-lipped on who prepared the question papers for the examination which was to be conducted in optical mark recognition (OMR) format.

Since recruitment examinations for government jobs require highest levels of secrecy, to contain the scope of leakages, the number of agencies involved in the examination process is kept at the minimum.

However, this time, multiple numbers of agencies were engaged in the chain of process and their role is under scanner. Sources said, had it not been for the chief minister’s office (CMO) which tipped off Berhampur police about the group of candidates being ferried in three buses to be trained for the test at Vizianagaram, the multi crore scam would not have come to fore at the nick of time.

A team from Golanthara police station stopped three AC buses near Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border on October 1.

During verification, police found that there were a total of 117 passengers. Of them, 114 had applied for sub-inspector exams. Three middlemen, including a police constable, were also held.

Investigation revealed the middle-men had promised to provide candidates the confidential question papers of SI written examinations. Each candidate had agreed to pay Rs 25 lakh in installments, Rs 10 lakh towards advance and the remaining Rs 15 lakh after they were selected for the job.

Sources said the arrests were just the tip of the scam and many more agents are involved in it. Meanwhile, outraged over alleged irregularities in recruitment examination, job aspirants staged a protest in front of Harekrushna Mahatab Library in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

The candidates accused the OPRB of gross negligence and claimed that corruption within the system enabled widespread malpractice.

This was the second time this year when OPRB cancelled the CPSE. Earlier in March, the board had postponed the examinations to October over similar allegations of malpractices.

The Crime Branch was then asked to conduct an inquiry and found out lapses on part of the third party agency conducting the test. The OPRB then cancelled its contract with the firm which was from Gujarat.

Odisha Police headquarters sources said the probe could be officially handed over to Crime Branch shortly.

The story is reported by Asish Mehta for The New Indian Express