In Haryana recruitment scam, ED finds 28 OMR sheets tampered with

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, November 8

The OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets of 13 candidates for the dental surgeon recruitment test and 15 for the Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) preliminary examination conducted in 2021 were tampered with, the Enforcement Directorate has said citing a forensic report.

Rs 3.30 crore cash recovered in the scam

Rs 1.08 crore of it seized from Nagar’s office

In its prosecution complaint filed in the multi-crore Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) scam before a Panchkula court, the ED maintained that former Deputy Secretary Anil Nagar and one of his middlemen, Ashwani Sharma, “used to fill the blank circles left by candidates in the original and the carbon copy of OMR sheets”.

Of the 24 roll numbers of the HCS exam, written on a paper found in Nagar’s pocket during a search, 15 matched with the data recovered from Sharma’s mobile phone. The ED said HPSC employees Deputy District Attorney (DDA) Gautam Nariala, Assistant Jitender Singh and Steno Satpal had revealed that Nagar used to continue scanning OMR sheets even after they had left the service commission’s office after 8 pm.

The ED’s case is based on an FIR lodged by the State Vigilance Bureau (now Anti-Corruption Bureau), dated November 17, 2021, against Nagar, Sharma and others.

A total of Rs 3.30 crore was recovered, of it Rs 1.08 crore from Nagar’s room in the HPSC office. Also, Rs 66 lakh was recovered from the residence of Nagar’s friend Ashish Kumar and his father Satish Garg, while another Rs 1.44 crore (belonging to Nagar) was surrendered by Ashish, the ED said. Another Rs 12 lakh was recovered from Nagar’s house, it said.

Sharma’s firm M/s Paru Data Solutions Pvt Ltd had got the contract for scanning OMR sheets from the HPSC. Upon his arrest on November 18, 2021, the Vigilance Bureau made him contact Nagar to tell him that “he had brought a scanning machine”. He came to Nagar’s office and left the trolley bag. The bag was full of cash. Thereafter, the Vigilance Bureau raided Nagar’s office and arrested him.

Vineet Kumar, from whom Sharma had hired the scanning machine for the HPSC work, told the ED that he had seen Sharma filling up the circles in the OMR sheets in the room assigned for scanning.

HPSC employees told the ED that Sharma used to frequently visit Nagar for scanning-related work. Once, on Nagar’s directions, they took out the sheets and placed these on his table for scanning. However, during the scanning process, Sharma and Nagar used to sit alone in the cabin and sometimes it used to be locked from inside.

One of Nagar and Sharma’s accomplices, Naveen, through middlemen, allegedly collected Rs 2.54 crore from eight candidates for the HCS preliminary and 11 candidates for the dental surgeon examination and handed it over to Sharma. Of the five candidates whose details accused Pawan Gupta gave to Sharma, for which Rs 1 crore was charged for the dental surgeon exam, four passed and their OMR sheets were also found tampered with. Sharma gave Nagar Rs 2.08 crore for 13 candidates in the dental surgeon exam and Rs 1.30 crore for five in the HCS exam, the ED said.

Accused charged Rs 15-30 lakh

• Haryana Public Service Commission Dy Secy Anil Nagar one of accused in job scam
• Nagar, middleman Ashwani used to fill answer options on OMR sheets left blank by candidates
• The duo charged Rs 25-Rs 30 lakh each for dental surgeon exam and Rs 15-Rs 20 lakh each for Haryana Civil Service preliminary exam
• Dealt with only those candidates not known to any MP, MLA, HPSC member
• The candidates were told to attempt only 30-40 of the questions and the duo themselves marked the right options in the rest