SHIMLA: Considering its political fallout, Director General of Police, Himachal Pradesh has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Madhu Sudan, DIG- central range Mandi to probe expeditiously the paper leakage of the Junior office assistant(JOA) test in Sundarnagar held on April 24.
The Mandi police have already arrested six accused in this connection so far. Paper Leakage in Sundarnagar has come hot on the heels of the Sundarnagar Liquor tragedy that had killed seven people, said locals.
DGP has also directed the SIT to recommend how the bank accounts and the properties of the accused can be attached.
The JOA was conducted by the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC), Hamirpur on April 24 in over 517 centres across the state for 400 posts. As many as 1.25 lakh candidates had appeared in the JOA test.
The paper leakage has raised the ire of the applicants against the HPSSC for its failure to conduct the test fairly.
The opposition parties have also pulled its punches against the government in this election year, charging that the some favourites are finding easy ways to get into the government jobs.
According to the order issued by DGP Sanjay Kundu here today, SIT will carry out the investigation of the matter without prejudice to the investigation in this case being carried out by Mandi Police.
The SIT has also been directed to investigate all possible angle of the JOA scam. The SIT will investigate whether or not there is any bigger conspiracy in the matter. Is the scam limited to one Centre or its network is spread in other areas of the State, said the DGP.
The SIT will also probe whether there is an organized crime or individual crime in this leakage. Whether public officials are involved in the matter or not, said DGP.
The SIT has been constituted on the complainant of Anita Dogra, Assistant Professor, MLSM College, Sundernagar regarding paper leakage during screening test of JOA.
The Mandi police have lodged the FIR No. 67/2022 on 24-04-2022 under Section 420 IPC and Section 7 of HP Malpractice at University, Board and other specified Examination Act-1984 at police station Sundernagar.
The police have already arrested six accused in the case including a candidate, a teacher of the private college and four others on the same day.
The commission has sealed the papers of the two centres in MLSM college where the paper code 939 was leaked before the test was started and was shared on WhatsApp on social media. The commission has claimed that the JOA paper in other centres was conducted fairly and without complaint. The paper of these two centres has been cancelled, the official of the commission has stated.
As many as 1.25 lakh applicants have appeared in the JOA paper in over 517 centres across the state on April 24.
The SIT will be headed by DIG central range Madhu Sudan. Other member of SIT are Soumya Sambasivan, 3rd IRBN, Diwakar Sharma, CO 4th IRBn and Sushant Sharma, DSP, CID Unit Mandi. DGP has directed SIT to expedite the probe at the earliest.
