Kangra: Amid reports of a question paper leak, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, on Friday said the written test conducted to recruit police constables in March has been countermanded. In connection with the same, Kangra police had registered an FIR on Thursday late at night at Gaggal police station. Four persons, including three candidates, who have cleared the examination have been arrested.
This is for the second time within three years that the state government has nullified the examination to select constables. In August 2019, the examination was held invalid after six men were caught impersonating candidates. The written examination this time to recruit 1,700 constables was held on March 27 after the candidates cleared their fitness test.
During the scrutiny of documents, Kangra SP Khushal Sharma got suspicious of three youths who had secured fewer marks in classes X and XII. On this, the SP questioned them separately. During police interrogation, they admitted that they had got the answers to the typed questions by paying money in lakhs even before the written examination.
The investigation of the case has been entrusted to the state’s Crime Investigation Department (CID), and a five-member special investigation team (SIT) headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police Madhu Sudan has been constituted, the chief minister said.
A fresh written examination will be held later this month, he added. The state’s Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Kundu in a statement said that an FIR has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code in Kangra district’s Gaggal police station as some candidates allegedly resorted to cheating during the written examination.