A public interest litigation was moved in the High Court regarding the Himachal Pradesh Police Constable written exam paper leak case on Thursday. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Sandeep Sharma on Thursday listed the matter on May 26 and issued notices to the State government officers today. The counsel of petitioner Advocate Vinaya Sharma sought the CBI probe in the matter, stating that the same agency conducting the paper could not be trusted to lodge the inquiry into the paper leak case. He contended that the constable recruitment paper had been leaked from the police custody. Only the people included in the selection board have been kept in the SIT. In such a situation, a fair investigation could not be expected from the state police. The petitioner said this is the second such scam in police recruitment. Earlier different candidates were caught appearing in the written examination instead of the candidates who passed the ground. Questioning the justification of police conducting the examination or test for recruitment, he said that when there is a Selection Services Commission for recruitment in the state, it is not rational to get such examination conducted by the police itself.
It is worthwhile to mention that Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had announced to constitute a Special Investigation Team after the paper leak case surfaced, and 15 people were arrested, including some youth in Kangra district who were allegedly found involved in the paper leak case. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur himself had directed to constitute an SIT to investigate the matter.
The opposition is also continuously raising questions on the SIT investigation as high officials are expected to be involved in the paper leak case. The petitioner said that state police conducted a written examination on March 27 for 1334 posts of police constables in men’s and women’s categories. In this, 75,803 candidates were sitting. The result was also declared in April. The list of the candidates who came in the merit was almost ready. Preparations were on to give them joining, but before that, a WhatsApp chat about the paper leak went viral. Some youths of Arki area of Solan met the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and Home Secretary in this matter. After this, the investigation of the case was started on the government’s instructions. Now new revelations are happening. Altogether 1,87,311 youths and girls had applied for Police Constable.
