The role of some employees of Panjab University (PU) is under scanner in Junior Basic Training (JBT) and Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) exams recruitment scam. The exams were conducted in 2015 by the UT administration. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of UT police may soon question some of the employees. Out of the total 22 people who got the leaked question papers, 17 have joined the investigation, while three are absconding, said police officials.The revelations were made by the main accused of the scam Bijender Nain, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana. He was arrested by the SIT after his involvement was revealed by two other accused Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Pardeep Lochav. Both these accused were arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau and they were brought by the UT police on production warrants about a month ago. Nain also told the investigators that he used to charge between Rs 7 lakh from JBT teacher and Rs 10 lakh from TGT teachers.
Disclosing further, Ravi Kumar, SP (Operations) said that during the course of investigation the accused told them that most of the candidates belonged to Sonipat, Bhiwani and Rewari districts of Haryana and the accused with the help of his accomplices took them to Lucknow, which was also an examination centre, in a bus belonging to a private travel agency. The SP added that their team is already present in Lucknow and they are investigating further as to where the candidates were kept by the accused.
According to Kumar, 25 beneficiaries were identified by the police once the investigation began and out of the total candidates 17 had joined the probe. Twenty candidates who purchased the leaked papers from the accused got the jobs while five candidates could not join due to the anomalies in their age proofs and educational certificates. Three accused are still absconding.
Elaborating police’s suspicion on the PU staff, the SP said that they are not sure about it but they are investigating the matter and they are suspecting that some PU employees might be linked to the scam.
The SP also said that the leaked question papers were printed at a printing press in New Delhi and the police are getting the details of the owners of the press since they might have some knowledge that leaked papers were being printed.
When asked that whether the accused also was in touch with the people responsible for Vyapam scam which hit Madhya Pradesh (MP), the SP said that that they are investigating the inputs but at this stage they can not say anything about this.
Thought, the teachers recruitment scam was registered by Punjab Vigilance Bureau but the agency also asked the UT police to conduct the investigation as they had proofs that the accused also leaked the papers of the exams conducted by UT administration in 2015. The VB had also written a letter to the UT police in June this year on the issue. After the letter from Punjab, UT police started the investigation and identified 25 candidates who successfully cleared the examination.
[Source:-The Indian Express]
