Dental Surgeon Recruitment Scam: HPSC officer accused of taking bribes to manipulate marks sacked

Chandigarh: A suspended deputy secretary of the Haryana Public Service Commission, arrested earlier for allegedly taking bribes to manipulate marks of candidates for their recruitment as dental surgeons, was sacked on Tuesday.

HPSC Deputy Secretary Anil Nagar was arrested earlier along with two others by the Haryana Vigilance Bureau sleuths for their alleged roles in manipulating the recruitment of dental surgeons by taking bribes from them for enhancing their marks in the written test for the purpose.

Also Read: Vyapam scam: CBI court sentences candidate to 5 years imprisonment for taking MBBS admission fraudulently

Whereas Anil Nagar has been placed under suspension with effect from November 11, the date of his arrest, there is not an iota of doubt that defaulter has acted in a manner most reprehensible, which is not expected from a member of the service.

The defaulter has exhibited grave misconduct, thereby tarnishing the image of the state government in the eyes of the general public. Further, such immoral activities bring severe disrepute to the state government, said the government order, dismissing the Haryana Civil Services officer.

The dismissal order was issued by the government under Article 311(2) (b) of the Constitution which empowers the competent authority to dismiss, remove or reduce the rank of a government servant without any departmental inquiry.

Nagar is alleged to have demanded and accepted illegal gratification to the tune of several crores of rupees.

Haryana's main opposition Congress had stepped up attack on the ruling BJP-JJP combine and demanded an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team monitored by the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court into the alleged scam, saying it was important to unearth the "role of those in the higher echelons of power".

Indian National Lok Dal too had stepped up the attack on the M L Khattar government over the alleged scam.

Detailing reasons for dismissing the HPSC deputy secretary, the government order said, Anil Nagar remained posted as deputy Secretary in HPSC, which is a high-level post in the Commission, so it has been learnt that he or together with his associates or others, can terrorise, threaten or intimidate witnesses who are going to give evidence against him with fear of reprisal to prevent them from doing so.

He is likely to further intimidate the subordinate staff for not giving any evidence against him due to his subordination during his tenure.., the competent authority has reasons to believe to dispense with the departmental proceedings/inquiry for the mentioned reasons, said the order.

"Whereas, the competent authority has, after taking into consideration all aspects of the case, decided to award a punishment of dismissal from service which shall ordinarily be a disqualification for future employment under the government upon Anil Nagar," it said.

The State Vigilance Bureau had mentioned in its report that Anil Nagar and another accused had manipulated the OMR sheets of the Haryana Civil Service preliminary examination and test for dental surgeons.

Giving details of the sequence of events in the case, the order, further quoting the SVB report, said, Anil Nagar had called for the answer sheets of the agreed-upon candidates and had made alterations in the answers and then re-scanned the sheets.

Further, Anil Nagar's residence was searched and Rs 12 lakh cash was seized. On interrogation, Nagar confessed that he had parked money with his associate and Rs 2.10 crore was recovered from his associate.

Thus, a total of Rs 3.5 crore cash has been seized so far in the course of the investigation. Further, a handwritten list of roll numbers of the HCS exam was recovered from Nagar's wallet whereas, interrogation of all three (arrested) accused revealed that a total of around 30-32 candidates were involved , the order said.

Quoting Nagar's interrogation report, the order further elaborated that of the 32 roll numbers, fifteen were of the Haryana Civil Service candidates of whom five passed in the preliminary examination and 17 were of dental surgeon candidates of whom 13 passed.

As being deputy secretary, he was overall in charge of the examination, he is supposed to do work as per the standard operating procedure but he was involved in manipulating answer sheets. This is highly unbecoming of the officer.

Thus, he does not deserve to be in service. Keeping in view the overall circumstances of the case and grave misconduct and indiscipline on the part of the accused in the case, it is clear that Anil Nagar is not fit to be retained further as a member of civil services of the state, the order said.

Also Read: Medical College admission scam: CBI Gets Nod to Prosecute Former Allahabad HC Judge