Karnataka HC orders for re-examination in PSI recruitment scam

Bengaluru: In a major decision, the Karnataka High Court on Friday ordered re-examination for the 545 Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) posts and quashed the petition questioning it.

A division bench headed by Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar and comprising Justice T.G. Shivashankare Gowda had passed the order and upheld the order of the Karnataka government in this regard.

The petition in this regard was submitted by the selected candidates.

They had also requested the court to facilitate their recruitment.

The scam had come to light during the tenure of the previous BJP government.

The incumbent Congress government had ordered the judicial probe over the scam and also announced that it would re-investigate the scandal.

The police have arrested more than 110 persons, including an ADGP ranked officer for the first time in the history of the state. in connection with the scam.

As many as 54,041 candidates appeared for exams held on October 3, 2021 for the 545 vacant posts.

The exams were held in 92 centers across the state.

The results were announced in January 2022.

Later, the allegations surfaced that candidates who gave very poor performance in descriptive writing got maximum marks in Paper 2.

However, the police and the then Home Minister under the previous BJP government denied any irregularities in PSI recruitment exams.

One of the candidates filed an RTI application seeking information on OMR sheets of one of the candidates.

Though the application was rejected, the OMR sheet of the candidate appeared in public domain.

Police sources say that Veeresh, the candidate, had attended only 21 questions in paper 2 but got 100 marks.

He was given 7th rank.

Minister for RDPR, IT and BT, Priyank Kharge had then alleged that more than 300 of the 545 candidates had paid Rs 70 to 80 lakh bribe to officials and ministers to become PSIs.

Ruling BJP had then challenged him to produce evidence before CID.