TNPSC failed to safekeep answer scripts: Crime Branch
Petition says blank sheets were supplied to certain candidates
The City Crime Branch police have indicated to the Madras High Court that the Group-I examination answer sheets sent by post to a private Tamil satellite TV channel by an anonymous person and those provided by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) were printed at the same facility.
The sheets were used in the TNPSC’s Group-I main examination, conducted last year.
A petition before the court alleges that blank sheets were supplied to certain candidates after the examination to be filled up and inserted later.
Sathiyam TV, which has since been impleaded in the matter, broadcast an expose claiming that it had access to TNPSC’s answer sheets. The High Court asked the Police Commissioner to investigate.
Same booklets
“With regard to the genuineness of the question-answer booklet, the Forensic Science Laboratory, after careful examination of a booklet submitted by the Sathiyam TV and the answer booklet by the TNPSC, submitted a report dated 8/9/2017 that the plates used for the print matter were one and the same,” said an interim status report, submitted on September 14 to Justice S.M. Subramaniam by the investigating officer.
‘TNPSC not cooperating’
In response, the High Court on Friday asked the TNPSC to produce, on November 8, all the files relating to the selection of Group I officers. This was after the Special Public Prosecutor told the bench that TNPSC officials were not cooperating with its inquiry. The report said “....unused answer booklets were bundled and kept openly on the wayside of the officials’ rooms...they are also not able to account for the rest of the unused answer booklets of the Group-I service main examination. But the answer booklets written by the candidates were kept safely in the custody of the Controller of Examinations.”
The police also found that the news channel had been sent the incriminating documents from the Vepery post office, but the sender remains untraceable.
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