Rajasthan Staff Selection Board's technical head held for large-scale exam irregularities

Jaipur, Jan 20 (PTI) The Special Operations Group (SOG) on Tuesday arrested the technical head of the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSMSSB) along with four others for allegedly manipulating results of multiple competitive exams.

The arrests were made in connection with largescale irregularities in the superviser (women empowerment), laboratory assistant and agriculture superviser recruitment examinations conducted in 2018, for which over 9.4 lakh candidates had applied for 3,212 posts, Additional Director General of Police (SOG) Vishal Bansal told reporters at a press conference here.

According to the SOG, the accused include Sanjay Mathur, the then deputy director and system analyst-cum-programmer of the selection board, who was also the technical in-charge of the examination process.

The other arrested accused were identified as Shadan Khan, Vinod Kumar Gaur, Poonam Mathur and Praveen Gangwal, a programmer with the board.

Bansal said the examinations were held in 2019 and the confidential work of scanning OMR sheets and data processing was outsourced to a Delhi-based firm.

During the investigation, it emerged that after scanning the OMR sheets, the data was allegedly tampered with at the computer level to illegally inflate marks of select candidates, enabling ineligible candidates to clear the exams.

The manipulation came to light after the board ordered re-scanning of the original OMR sheets, which revealed serious discrepancies between the actual and final marks, police said.

Investigators alleged that Mathur, abusing his official position, colluded with the staff of the outsourced firm and other accused to alter scanned OMR data using photo-editing tools.

In some cases, candidates who had originally scored between 30 and 60 marks were allegedly shown as having secured over 180 marks, officials said.

The police also claimed that the main accused were part of an internal administrative committee constituted by the board to probe the irregularities, allegedly in an attempt to influence the inquiry.

The SOG said the accused also received large sums of money for manipulating results through middlemen.

Further investigation is underway. PTI AG KSS KSS