CB rules out rampant copying in PSC test

Agency may go ahead with posting of civil police officers

The Crime Branch (CB) of the State police has reportedly concluded that there was no widespread copying or leakage of questions in the exam conducted by the Public Service Commission (PSC) in July 2018 for recruitment as civil police officers for enlistment into the Kerala Armed Police (KAP) Battalion IV. The PSC will discuss the interim inquiry report of the CB on Monday and expedite the steps to fill the vacancies of 2,752 civil police officers in the KAP.

The selection process had come under a cloud after a police probe revealed that two Students Federation of India (SFI) leaders, Nazeem and Shivarenjith, accused of fatally stabbing a fellow student activist in University College here, had used smartphones, smartwatches and the services of a PSC-test proficient police officer during the exam. The PSC had ranked them first and 28th respectively on the rank list published on July 1, 2019. More than six lakh persons had appeared for the exam.

Commission chairman M.K. Sakeer told The Hindu on Thursday that the probe had fixed the onus for the scam on three accused and that the PSC exam system had not been breached and no staff or other candidates were involved in irregularities.

The CB case was that the police officer, identified as Gokul, had texted the answers to the accused, who wrote the exam in the college, after he received the questions on the mobile phone of another suspect, Safir. The police were also probing Pranav, another University College student, who had emerged second in the exam. He had been arrested, remanded and sent on bail. The government has since suspended Gokul from service and the CB has named him as a suspect in the case.

The agency had also verified 879 persons who appeared for the exam at the college. The copying in the PSC exam had resulted in an embarrassment for the government. The then Governor P. Sathasivam had summoned PSC chairman M.K. Sakeer and sought an explanation from him.

Additional Director General of Police Tomin Thachankery supervised the probe.

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