PSI exam: Candidates furious at annulment of results, hold protest

Hundreds of young graduates who had cracked the police sub-inspector exam last year are crying foul after the state government annulled the results citing a scam.

Over 500 candidates held a demonstration at Freedom Park on Saturday and later submitted a memorandum to Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, lambasting the annulment of the exam results.

The notification for the written exam to recruit 545 sub-inspectors was issued on January 22, 2021. The exam was held on October 3 last year while the provisional list of successful candidates was published on January 19 this year. The next step was to hand over appointment letters.

Also read | PSI exam scam: 12 candidates held

The first sign of trouble came on February 7, 2022, when the additional director-general of police (recruitment) temporarily suspended the hiring process citing “administrative” reasons. In April, a few successful candidates were arrested in Kalaburagi for rigging the exam, and the case was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The agency says some candidates who had answered very few questions were later found to have attempted all questions and scored high marks. The CID has arrested seven successful candidates as well as Divya Hagaragi, a BJP leader from Kalaburagi, for masterminding the scam. On Friday, the government annulled the exam results, angering the candidates.

Rakesh C, an electronics and communications engineer from Ramanagar, who cracked the exam, is furious at the result annulment. He was among the protesters on Saturday.

Speaking to DH, he slammed the government for punishing all the 545 candidates for the misdeeds of only seven. “This is arbitrary and illogical. This means all of us cheated in the exam. If that’s the case, all of us should be arrested and sent to jail. If not, then remove only the bad apples and appoint the rest,” Rakesh said.

According to him, the CID questioned all the selected candidates from April 20 to 29 and is yet to submit a report. “Annulling the results before the CID gives the report is holding us all guilty before the trial,” he added.

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