Thiruvananthapuram: The Crime Branch has sought the permission of the court to conduct an exam in jail to check the IQ of two SFI leaders who are accused of fraud in the civil police officer test conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC). Earlier, Crime Branch officers had visited the jail and asked the accused questions from the PSC question paper. However, as reported earlier, the two youths - Naseem and Sivaranjith - had then failed to give the correct answers to any of the questions posed by the investigators.
Meanwhile, investigators are seeking details regarding the people who visited the accused in prison and also about those who had taken the PSC test at University College in Thiruvananthapuram and the invigilators there.
University College was the exam centre for both Naseem and Sivaranjith who are also accused in a stabbing case reported from the same institution.
The PSC exam for civil police officers was held on July 22, 2018 for appointments to the Special Armed Police SAP for its Thiruvananthapuram and Malappuram units as well as for seven battalions of the Kerala Armed Police. There were four centres at the University College itself for the exam. As many as 436 candidates appeared in centres 2 and 4 and 443 in centres 1 and 3 at this college. All over Kerala, 6,56,058 persons applied for the exam - 3,59,456 males and 2,96,602 females. However, around 2 lakh candidates did not appear.
The rank list was published on July 1 this year and Sivaranjith had Rank 1, Pranav 2 and Naseem 28. All three had applied for Kasaragod battalion.
After it was evident that the question paper was leaked from University College, Crime Branch decided to check details regarding the mobile number to generate the one-time password used for the exam registration.
Gokul, a policeman who allegedly helped the candidates, had said that the questions were obtained from the University College. According to Gokul’s statement, he had sent the answers by SMS to the accused candidates. Gokul is now under suspension.
The Crime Branch believes that Pranav is the kingpin of the racket. He is still missing along with Safeer, another accused.
On the other hand, many honest candidates point out that the PSC exams offer many opportunities for malpractices, including impersonation, as the invigilators are never vigilant. Another lacuna exists in connection with the physical test. During the physical test at Alappuzha, a suspicious candidate had turned up but when the officials started questioning him, the youth fled. The police had launched an investigation into this matter too but nothing happened.
