JOA Recruitment: Himachal Pradesh vigilance bureau books 4 for tampering with candidates' OMR sheets

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh's State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau on Saturday booked four people for allegedly tampering with OMR sheets to help candidates clear the Junior Office Assistant (JOA) (IT) (Post Code 939) examination held on April 24 last year, officials said.

The case has been registered on the basis of an inquiry after the paper for the examination for JOA (IT) (Post Code 965) recruitment on December 23 last year was leaked, they said.

During the investigation, it was found that two peons -- Kishori Lal and Madan Lal -- posted at the now-disbanded Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC) in Hamirpur tampered with the OMR sheets of two candidates and helped them get selected. One of the candidates was Madan Lal's son and the other was his neighbour, they said.

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The niece of HPSSC senior assistant Uma Azad, who was caught red-handed by the vigilance sleuths while selling the question paper of the JOA (IT) examination on December 23 last year, and two others scored exceptionally high marks and the allegations are being probed, the officials said.

A case has been registered against Madan Lal, his son Vishal Choudhary, Kishori Lal and Dinesh Kumar in connection with the matter, they said.

Following the paper leak, the vigilance department is investigating 20 examinations held in the past three years. The JOA (IT) paper leak came to light on December 23 last year when the vigilance sleuths arrested Azad with the solved question paper and cash worth Rs 2.5 lakh, among other things.

So far, eight people -- Azad, her sons Nikhil and Nitin, tout Sanjeev, his brother Shashi Pal, Neeraj, Ajay Sharma and Tanu Sharma -- have been arrested in connection with the case. The state government suspended the functioning of the HPSSC in December over the paper leak. It postponed all the examinations scheduled to be held in the near future before dissolving the commission last month.