APSC CCE-2014: Panel to examine Rakesh Paul's notes

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Justice (Retd) Biplab Kumar Sharma Judicial Inquiry Commission will now scrutinize all the notes made by the then chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), Rakesh Paul, on files pertaining to the commission's Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) 2014.

According to sources, this decision follows replies in "denial mode" by some then officials and members of the APSC to queries posed in writing by the judicial commission.

The state government had formed the judicial inquiry commission a few months ago to inquire into the allegations of anomalies and malpractices in the conduct of CCE 2014 examination conducted by APSC. The notices were subsequently served upon the former officials and members of the APSC by the judicial inquiry commission, which were to be replied to within 15 days of receipt.

However, the inquiry commission has found the replies to be evasive and hence the decision has been taken to examination the notes made on the relevant files by Rakesh Paul.

Among others, the judicial inquiry commission had served a notice upon the then principal controller of examinations of the APSC, Nanda Babu Singh, after it was found that Singh's daughter had also successfully appeared in the CCE 2014 examination. Singh had informed the then chairman Rakesh Paul about it and consequently the APSC had officially debarred Singh from examination-related work for CCE 2014. However, when the inquiry commission examined the relevant documents relating to CCE 2014, it was found that several note sheets of the examination contained Singh's signature. Further, the note sheet pertaining to the order for destruction of optical mark recognition (OMR) answer scripts of APSC's preliminary examination also contained Singh's signature. The judicial inquiry commission asked Singh to explain as to how his signature appears in various documents even though he was officially debarred from involvement in the CCE 2014.

Singh has claimed in his reply to the inquiry commission that he was unaware of the fact that he was debarred from work related to the CCE 2014. Singh also requested that he should be allowed to study some files related to CCE 2014, which was allowed by the judicial inquiry commission. Singh studied the files at the APSC office on Thursday in presence of officials of the judicial inquiry commission.

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