Several teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out raids at 36 locations in different States on Tuesday in the Jammu and Kashmir Sub-Inspector recruitment scam.
A CBI spokesman said the raids were carried out in J&K’s Jammu and Srinagar, Haryana’s Karnal, Mahendragarh and Rewari, Gujarat’s Gandhidham, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad and Karnataka’s Bengaluru.
“The premises of former Chairman and Controller Examination of the J&K Service Selection Board (JKSSB), gang members domiciled in Haryana, certain teachers, some serving and retired officials of J&K Police, including a DSP and CRPF, were searched during the on-going investigation,” the CBI said.
Incriminating documents and digital evidence had so far been recovered during the searches, it added.
The CBI had registered a case on August 3, 2022, on the request of the J&K Government against 33 accused including then Medical Officer, BSF Frontier Headquarters, Paloura; then member, JKSSB; then Under Secretary, then Section Officer (both of JKSSB); Ex-official of CRPF; ASI of J&K Police; owner of a coaching centre, Akhnoor; private company based at Bengaluru; private persons and unknown others.
There were allegations of irregularities in the written examination for the posts of Sub-Inspectors in the J&K Police conducted by the JKSSB on March 27, 2022. The results were declared on June 4, 2022.
Preliminary investigations suggested that the accused entered into conspiracy with officials of the JKSSB, a Bengaluru-based private company, beneficiary candidates and caused “gross irregularities in conduct of written examination for the posts”.
“Violation of rules by the JKSSB was allegedly found in assigning the task of setting the question paper to a Bengaluru-based private company,” sources said. There were also allegations of candidates paying money up to ₹30 lakh to access the question papers.
Later, the selected list saw a higher percentage of selected candidates only from Jammu, Rajouri and Samba districts in J&K.
