Crime Branch SIT punches holes in Kerala PSC's technical fault theory in Planning Board exam

Thiruvananthapuram: The Crime Branch Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing alleged malpractices in the conduct of recruitment exams by the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC), has found that the claims of the PSC Chairman and officials that technical errors in evaluation during the Kerala Planning Board Chief exam had created the controversy were false.

As per the findings of the SIT, 228 candidates appeared for the Planning Board test using the OMR method in 2023. During evaluation, 10 questions of 177 candidates and nine questions of 51 candidates were omitted. The SIT said this mismatch in the number of questions avoided during evaluation was proof of malpractice.

The report submitted by the SIT before the court also said inspection of onscreen marking with the help of technical experts had found no errors in the evaluation software. The SIT arrived at this conclusion after checking the answer sheets of all the 228 candidates and the server data at the valuation camp. The investigators also conducted a dummy exam to identify the method employed to carry out the fraud.

During its probe, the SIT noticed that P Satheesh, PSC’s former Deputy Secretary who was holding charge of the valuation camp officer, had not assigned questions carrying 58 marks to members of the panel for evaluation. This was a ‘deliberate error’, believes the SIT, which also found that the evaluation process was closed despite receiving a message from the software that all the questions in the exam were not valued.

Based on these fundings, the SIT is planning to approach the court to again question Satheesh, who is now in remand, and PSC’s Additional Secretary R Hari.

Meanwhile, PSC Secretary Saju George will be interrogated on Monday. A notice has been served on Member C K Shajib as well to appear for questioning.

DySP exam too under cloud
A complaint has been filed alleging fraud in the conduct of the Special Recruitment Exam by the PSC for Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) too, in which a former SFI leader secured the first rank. The DySP exam recruitment was for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes.

As per the complaint submitted by the Save University Campaign Committee to the Chief Minister and Home Minister, K J Jithin, a former SFI leader from Idukki, was placed first in the rank-list for DySP posts, even though he had not found a place even on the main rank-list for police constables. The complaint alleged that Jithin was an accused in several criminal cases and, therefore, demanded that his permission for training and appointment order should be cancelled.

The notification for the DySP post was issued in September 2025, and over 17,000 applications were received. A written exam was conducted in December that year and a physical fitness test was held on March 26, 2026. Subsequently, 35 candidates appeared for the interview held on April 26, following which the final ranklist was published on May 6. The complaint said only two vacancies existed for the post and that the PSC Chairman directly conducted the interview.

High marks for interview
Jithin scored 81.67 marks, 68.67 for the written test and 13 for the interview. The candidate who was placed second scored 81.28 marks, 64.33 for written test, 12 for interview and a weightage of 4.95. The complaint alleged that maximum marks were given to these candidates to prevent them from falling behind in the ranklist.