BOMBAY, 4 July — Police here are hoping for help from the federal and Maharashtra governments to bring a senior official in for questioning on a jobs-for-money scandal.
The anti-corruption branch wants to interrogate Sashikant Karnik, the former chief of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) that recruits for jobs in the state government. He is now a member of the New Delhi-based Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) that recruits officials for federal services.
The UPSC would have to direct Karnik to present himself before Bombay police for questioning, officials here said.
A summons has been issued to Karnik and his property in Bombay sealed, police said. His assets are being valued to see if he was linked to a scandal during his term as MPSC chief when candidates bribed officials to get their answer sheets tampered with. Karnik, a former vice chancellor of Bombay University, was MPSC chief between 1995 and 1999.
A police officer arrested for his suspected role in the scam was hospitalized after he complained of illness during questioning. Baban Kadam, deputy superintendent of police, intelligence, was admitted to a hospital Tuesday, police said. Kadam was and three other people were arrested for their alleged role in the scam Monday. A raid on his beach side bungalow reportedly unearthed huge amounts of gold and silver, in addition to answer sheets for MPSC examinations, police said.
The others are former Controller of Examinations (MPSC) S.G. Sarode, Eknath Bendre, an assistant in the state secretariat, and Farooq Gadge, a computer operator who allegedly helped the conspirators gain entry into the safe room where the answer sheets were stored.
The scandal came to light after several applicants for the posts of sales tax inspectors and police sub-inspectors who were denied jobs complained of irregularities in recruitment. The jobs were advertised in 1999, but physical examinations and interviews were conducted only in March this year.
The recruitment process was scrapped after authorities discovered large-scale tampering of answer sheets. About 400 students are estimated to have got their answer sheets tampered with the connivance of senior officials. Unconfirmed reports here say candidates paid as much as 500,000 rupees each in bribes. The scandal in Maharashtra closely follows a similar one in Punjab.
