JOIN USAn additional sessions court has ordered framing of charges against all the accused in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) examination scam of 1999. The 77th additional sessions court heard discharge applications filed by all the accused for nearly a month and dismissed their applications on Wednesday.
Retired IAS officer A K Monappa and others, including the candidates selected and those who were not selected despite getting their marks enhanced illegally are named in the case. A senior counsel said that charges will be framed against all the accused in the case of rigged recruitment process for gazetted probationers.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had filed the charge sheet against Monappa, Prof K Shivanna, retired head of the department of History in University of Mysore, Rameshwarappa, deputy director, department of Kannada and Culture, B S Nagaraj, B S Triveni, B S Hemalatha, P C Naveen, K R Prasad, K C Ponnappa, M Leela, Subhash K and Kaveriappa. Among the accused, Prof K Shivanna passed away after the charge sheet was filed.
The CID's case was that large-scale irregularities were found during the examination and selection process. Monappa, the then secretary of the KPSC, along with Shivanna were allegedly involved in criminal conspiracy to increase the marks of a few select candidates after the final valuation of answer scripts. All the answer scripts were kept in a strong room in Monappa’s chamber and that he was the only authorised person knowing the serial numbers of the candidates. The prosecution stated that Monappa appointed Prof Shivana as the chief examiner and allowed him to increase marks on the answer scripts. The difference of marks between final valuation and after illegal enhancement ranged from 50 to 100.
The CID probe revealed that Rameshwarappa, who got first rank and selected for the post of assistant commissioner was pursuing PhD under Prof Shivanna, while the second rank holder Nagaraj B S is the brother-in-law of Rameshwarappa. Among the other accused, Triveni and Hemalatha are sisters-in-law. Of the accused, a few were not selected in the interview, however they also got their marks enhanced after the valuation.
The CID has listed 135 witnesses, including the valuators. The valuation was done at the Podium Block at the VV Towers. During the investigation, CID had confronted the valuators with the 36 tampered answer scripts and they gave statement that the marks given by them were altered at a later stage. All these appointments were subsequently cancelled.