UPPSC's addl private secy exam-2010: CBI books UP officer over alleged irregularities

New Delhi: The CBI has registered an FIR against a special secretary in the Uttar Pradesh government for alleged irregularities in the 2010 Additional Private Secretary Examination conducted by the state's Public Service Commission, officials said on Friday.

The charges relates to the exam conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission in 2010 when Prabhunath was posted as the Controller of Examination in the body, they said.

Following the FIR, the CBI carried out searches on the premises linked to the accused, they said.

The CBI action comes after a two-year preliminary enquiry in which Prabhunath's criminality was prima facie established, the agency has alleged in its FIR.

The case was sent to the CBI by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.

The CBI found during the enquiry that Prabhunath, along with other officials of the UPPSC entered into a criminal conspiracy "to extend undue benefit to some of the undeserving candidates for their selection as Additional Private Secretary", the agency FIR alleged. In furtherance to the said conspiracy, they allegedly abused their official position to select some undeserving candidates for the posts at the cost of deserving candidates who could not be selected, it said.

The candidates had to appear and qualify General Hindi, Hindi Short Hand Test and Hindi Type Test, according to the laid down criteria.

The CBI alleged that in a meeting on June 15, 2015, the Commission decided to use its discretionary powers to relax the benchmark marks for qualifying for the third stage of the examination --computer knowledge test -- in case candidates failed to meet the minimum marks for qualifying in Hindi shorthand test.

Out of 1244 candidates, 913 obtained the minimum benchmark of 125 marks (with five per cent error) in the test, and 331 between 119-124 marks (with eight per cent error) in Hindi shorthand test, the agency said.

In such circumstances, as per approval of the Commission dated June 15, 2015, when sufficient number of candidates were available for final selection then there was no need to give extra three per cent relaxation in errors and they should have not been qualified for third phase of Examination i.e. Computer Knowledge Test, the CBI alleged.