Patna: Bihar Staff Selection Commission chief Sudhir Kumar and five others were arrested on Friday in connection with the paper leak scam in clerical-grade recruitment examination, even as a livid Bihar IAS Officers’ Association defended him and demanded a CBI inquiry to ensure fair probe.
The arrested BSSC Chairman, who is a 1987 batch IAS officer, was produced in the court of Acting Chief Judicial Magistrate Patna City Khyati Singh who sent him and the others to judicial custody till March 3. Kumar was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the paper leak scam.
The Bihar Chapter of the IAS Association after holding its meeting in the day met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar this evening. “The SIT has arrested BSSC chairman Sudhir Kumar and others, including his close kin, in connection with the paper leak matter,” Patna Zonal Inspector General of Police (IGP) N H Khan told PTI.
“Kumar was arrested by the SIT on the basis of concrete evidence of his role in the entire matter of the paper leak,” Khan said. While the IAS Association’s members alleged violation of procedures in Kumar’s arrest, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj, who is heading the SIT, told reporters that his arrest was made only after acquiring warrant from court.
The SSP claimed that there are enough material evidence to prove that the BSSC Chairman helped some family members who had appeared in the commission’s exam for recruitment of clerks in the state government and also for monetary benefits.
Those arrested with Sudhir Kumar included his brother Awdesh Kumar, who is a Professor in a prominent college in Patna, brother’s wife Manju Devi, maternal nephew Ashish Kumar, another relative Niti Ranjan and maternal nephew’s friend Sajjad Ahmad, Maharaj said.
Ashish, who was present at the media briefing of the SSP and had appeared in the BSSC exam on February 5 when the paper was leaked online, “admitted” before reporters that he had got the question paper in advance from his maternal uncle Sudhir Kumar.
The SSP said Ashish “provided” the question paper to the owner of a coaching Institute Ramashish Kumar, who is already in the police net. Ramashish gave it to candidates who gave a sum of Rs 6 lakh. Principal Secretary Environment and Forest Vivek Kumar Singh, who is also the secretary of the state IAS Association, told PTI that the CM had heard their plea that laid down institutional safeguards should be followed in the case of their colleague Sudhir Kumar.
Singh said they told the CM that the evidence the police is claiming against the officer might be their “subjective analysis” and the arrested IAS officer’s version should also be heard properly.
Besides, Singh, senior IAS officers Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, Dipak Kumar Singh and Arvind Chaudhary were part of the IAS Association delegation that met the CM.
Earlier, the IAS Officers’ Association had expressed deep anger and anguish over Kumar’s arrest and demanded a CBI inquiry to ensure fair probe into the alleged scam.
The Association in a press release also termed the arrest as “completely unwarranted” and demanded his immediate release, saying Kumar is an honest and sincere officer and was cooperating in the investigation. (PTI)
