Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP MLA and former Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) here on Monday in connection with the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam.
The Congress-led government has ordered a reinvestigation into the scam, with allegations that Ashwath Narayan played a role in facilitating the recruitment of candidates from the Magadi region, including his relatives.
Sources stated that while answering questions from the investigating officers, Ashwath Narayan maintained that he had no connection to the scam and claimed that the allegations against him were politically motivated.
Karnataka’s Congress government had announced that it would re-investigate the PSI recruitment scam. Police have arrested more than 30 accused persons including an ADGP-ranked officer for the first time in the history of the state.
As many as 54,041 candidates appeared for exams held on October 3, 2021, for the 545 vacant PSI posts. The exams were held in 92 centres across the state. The results were announced in January.
Later, the allegations surfaced that candidates who gave very poor performance in descriptive writing got maximum marks in Paper 2. However, the police and then Home Minister Araga Jnanendra denied any irregularities in PSI recruitment exams.
One of the candidates filed an RTI application seeking information on the OMR sheets of one of the candidates. Though the application was rejected, the OMR sheet of the candidate appeared in the public domain. Police sources say that Veeresh, the candidate, had answered only 21 questions in paper 2 but got 100 marks. He was given 7th rank.
Current Minister for RDPR, IT and BT, Priyank Kharge had then alleged that more than 300 of the 545 candidates had paid Rs 70 to 80 lakh bribes to officials and ministers to become PSIs. The ruling BJP had then challenged him to produce evidence before the CID).
The Congress leaders, then, vehemently demanded the resignation of Home Minister Jnanendra. They also alleged corruption by Ashwath Narayan and indirectly referred to former CM B.S. Yediyurappa’s son and BJP MLA B.Y. Vijayendra’s role as well.
Former ADGP Amrit Paul was arrested and jailed in the case. The Congress leaders maintain that the investigation is stuck at this stage and the authorities have not bothered to carry forward the probe as there is involvement of powerful BJP politicians.
The investigation agency had already submitted two charge sheets to the court regarding the scam.
(IANS)
