The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Tuesday, raided around 33 locations across the country in connection with the Police Sub-Inspector (SI) recruitment scam that has stumbled Jammu and Kashmir. The raids were carried out in Jammu, Srinagar, Karnal, Mahendergarh, Rewari in Haryana, Gandhinagar in Gujarat, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Bangalore in Karnataka, and Delhi.
During the raids, government houses of Khalid Jahangir, former chairman and Ashok Kumar, controller of examinations, of the Jammu & Kashmir Services Selection Board (SSB) were also searched. Searches are also being conducted at the premises of certain officials of J&K Police, and the CRPF. Documents were reportedly seized during a raid in Akhnoor sub-division.
The CBI had earlier conducted raids in August at 30 locations in Jammu and Kashmir and Bangalore in alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Sub-Inspector in Jammu & Kashmir police.
The recent recruitment of police sub inspectors, finance accounts assistants and junior engineers was cancelled by Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha amidst allegations of irregularities in the selection procedure. The LG had also recommended a CBI probe into the matter.
Dr Karnail Singh, former Medical Officer in Border Security Force (BSF), has been named key conspirator along with officials of the J&K SSB in the FIR, he added.
The alleged irregularities surfaced after significant candidates of a coaching institute in Jammu had made it to the merit list that also included names of siblings. The agency that conducted the online examination has also been named in the FIR. There are a total of 33 accused in the FIR registered by the CBI.
The LG said that a fresh recruitment process will soon be initiated for these posts.
More than 97,000 candidates had appeared in the exam for these posts and on 4 June the SSB announced the list of 1,200 successful candidates. Thereafter, protests broke out across J&K against alleged irregularities in these selections.