Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's Public Service Commission which has been at the centre of controversies for the past few months is to soon face the heat of the specialized investigation wing of Kerala Police Crime Branch.
The Crime Branch has decided to seek results of all recruitment exams held by the commission in the past few years. The commission has been facing flak for copying 'questions' besides permitting blatant copying amongst candidates during the examination.
The PSC has allegedly lifted an entire set of questions for the Criminology section on the jail department welfare officer grade-two test from the website of Oxford University Press.
The questions from the website have been lifted in the OMR test without even changing the options or syntax.
The credibility of the PSC has been sullied recently after irregularities in the conduct of the police recruitment exam were reported in the wake of a probe into a stabbing case reported from a college located in the Kerala capital.
Last week, the Kerala High Court had observed that a thorough investigation should be held into, at least, the latest appointments made by PSC in a bid to restore public's faith in the government recruiter.
This probe proves to be major setback for Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had dismissed allegations against the state Public Service Commission (PSC) as "totally baseless" and asked the media to end its "negative campaign".
The probe team, according to sources in the know of things, is expected to give a letter in this respect to the PSC Secretary in the coming days.
This sudden move came after the Kerala High Court, which last week as it heard the bail pleas of a few people accused of manipulating the police constable examination, said that it is high time that an external agency probes the PSC's activities.
The Kerala PSC's credibility took a beating after a probe into a campus brawl at the University College here where a student was stabbed, led to a probe which found discrepancies in the conduct of its examinations.
University College Akhil was stabbed by Sivarenjith, Naseem and their group, all attached to the CPI-M-affiliated student wing Students Federation of India (SFI).
With the media taking this case in a big way and the civil society also joining in, police stumbled upon crucial evidence that things are not fair in the PSC recruitment process, with the two prime accused having managed to get top ranks in the police constable examination.
Even after this, Pinarayi staunchly defended the PSC and alleged that there seemed to be a section trying to tarnish the image of the constitutional body, doing yeomen service in recruitment of employees from peons to Deputy Secretaries.
The chief minister added that there is nothing to be probed into at the PSC, while the Congress and the BJP went hammer and tongs against Pinarayi, demanding a CBI probe into the PSC activities.
Now following the high court's observation, the police probe team has decided to approach the PSC for a wider probe, thus denting Pinarayi's position.
Incidentally the PSC Rank Holders Association was the first to demand a probe by an independent agency, as the alleged manipulations cannot be the work of a few people alone.
(With inputs from IANS.)
