Accused also rigged HCS-2021 pre-exam: VB

Amit Bathla

Panchkula, January 19

Dismissed HCS officer Anil Nagar, along with other accused, had also falsified the HCS-2021 preliminary examination and not just the dental surgeon examination.

The “shocking relevation” was stated in the challan presented before a Panchkula court by the state Vigilance Bureau in the alleged HPSC recruitment scam.

As per the challan, Nagar, in his confession to the Bureau officials, stated that he had fixed a rate of Rs20-25 lakh per aspirant for the HCS pre-exam.

“In this regard, I received roll numbers of 15 aspirants from other accused involved in the case. After the scanning process, I had taken out the OMR sheets of these candidates. I, along with Ashwani Sharma, then filled the unanswered questions with current answers in the original and carbon copy of the OMR sheets of aspirants at my office. Five aspirants had passed the exam. For the same, I had received a total of Rs1.30 crore,” the challan read, quoting Nagar, who was then deputy secretary of the HPSC and entrusted with the work related to the HCS-2021 and dental surgeon-2021 examinations.

“Similarly, for dental surgeons’ recruitment exam, I received roll numbers of 17 candidates. I, along with Ashwani Sharma, forged their OMR sheets. Thirteen aspirants had passed this exam. For this, I took Rs2.08 crore,” stated Nagar in his admission to the Bureau officials, as per the challan submitted in the court.

Nagar and two others were arrested by the state Vigilance Bureau last year for allegedly manipulating marks of candidates, who appeared in the recruitment examination for dental surgeons.

On Monday, the Bureau submitted a challan against Nagar, Naveen Kumar and Ashwani Sharma in the local court.

In the court, the Vigilance Bureau stated that the matter was still under investigation and the samples of voice, handwriting, etc, were awaited from the laboratory in Madhuban. Once the report was received, a necessary supplementary challan would be submitted in the court, the Bureau stated.

The matter of the alleged cash-for-job scam had sparked statewide protests by the Opposition parties against the Manohar Lal Khattar-led state government, alleging that there was a large-scale corruption in the government recruitments.