Uttarakhand: ED to crack down on accused of several recruitment scams

"The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is going to crack down on the accused of recruitment scams in Uttarakhand," STF's SSP Ayush Aggarwal.

He further said that the ED is considering it as money laundering as a large amount of money was transacted.

"The federal agency has taken copies of cases related to the recruitment scam from the police. So far, seven cases have been registered in Uttarakhand regarding various recruitment scams. Another case has been filed against the accused of a recruitment scam, the ED has taken information from the police," Aggarwal added.

At present, STF is investigating the joint graduate level, secretariat guard, forest inspector, and VPDO recruitment scam.

In most of these cases, charge sheets have been filed in court.

Recently, following the UKPSC paper leak which result in the Patwari Lekhpal exam being cancelled for around 1.4 lakh candidates, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami the state government will soon introduce a new law for recruitment exams conducted in the state for government jobs.

The law will be known as the 'Anti-copying law' which will punish the candidates getting involved in cheating during recruitment examinations and a 'ban of 10 years' will be imposed on them.

Uttarakhand recently faced a major paper leak case in December.

The case pertains to a written exam conducted by the UKSSSC in December 2021.

It was one of the major examinations conducted by the commission for 854 posts across 13 departments.

However, there were widespread allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the test. Following these allegations, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami called for a probe and strict action against those guilty.

Following this, the secretary of the commission was removed from the post. A Special Task Force (STF) was also constituted to investigate the alleged irregularities.

After the Uttarakhand State Subordinate Service Selection Commission was caught up in a paper leak case, the government asked the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission to conduct recruitment exams.

However, UKPSC officials were also arrested for their alleged involvement in the UKPSC Paper leak for the Patwari Lekhpal exam, which was conducted on January 8, 2023. As of now, a total of four people have been arrested in the case. (ANI)