Trial begins against former KPSC chief H N Krishna

Former chairperson of Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) H N Krishna will face the trial over irregularities in the recruitment of Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ officers in 1998, 1999 and 2004. The trial court has expedited the proceedings and has again pressed charges against all the accused, including Krishna.

Earlier, the court had dropped certain offences under the IPC against Krishna and other accused in the case based on a Karnataka High Court order. The High Court had ordered quashing of the entire criminal proceedings, relating to the offence of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy against the accused. The accused in the case - Karnataka Administrative Service officers Asha Parveen S M and Salma Firdose (both from 1998 batch) faced charges of fudging their caste certificates to clinch the post.

“The state government had challenged the high court order. In April this year, the Supreme Court directed the trial court to restore the trial including all the charges pressed against them. The court has posted the hearing to October 6,’’ an advocate said.

Besides Asha Parveen and Salma Firdose, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had named KSPC staff K Narasimha and M B Banakar, P Gopi Krishna, personal assistant to H N Krishna. During the period of incident, Krishna was a member of the KPSC and later became the chairman. The CID investigation, based on the forensic report by the Hyderabad forensic laboratory, stated that caste certificates had been fudged. Asha Parveen was selected as tahsildar, while Firdose was selected as assistant sub-registrar during the recruitment.

The case was registered in the Vidhan Soudha police station in 2011, on the basis of the investigation by the CID.

The Karnataka High Court had ordered the enquiry into the irregularities in appointments to various posts in 1998, 1999 and 2004.