The Andhra Pradesh police’s special investigation team (SIT) has uncovered multiple irregularities in the valuation process of the Group-I job recruitment examination. This examination was conducted under the previous YSR Congress Party government. Officials with knowledge of the investigation revealed these findings on Thursday, highlighting significant lapses that could impact the integrity of the recruitment process.
The investigation also found that the mandatory independent second and third evaluations were not actually carried out, with second-evaluation marks allegedly generated by adding or subtracting one or two marks from the first evaluation. The SIT, constituted by the state government under the auspices of Crime Investigation Department chief Ravi Shankar Ayyanar on February 14, following a direction from the state high court, submitted its report to the court on August 10. The report, which comes amid concerns over the recent paper leak allegations and student protests, has exposed serious irregularities in the evaluation of Group-I examinations conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission’s (APPSC) in December 2020. The Group-I examination (mains) was held from December 14 to 20, 2020, with 114,473 aspirants competing for 169 posts, including deputy collectors and revenue divisional officers. The APPSC initially used digital valuation and declared the results on April 1, 2021, shortlisting 326 candidates. The controversy led to multiple petitions filed by the aspirants before the high court in 2022. On March 13, 2024, the high court held that the second and third valuations were illegal and irregular and ordered the conduct of a fresh Group-I (mains) examination. The SIT investigation also disclosed that as many as 452 university subject experts engaged by the APPSC were not used. Instead, 66 data-entry operators, including electricians, security guards, clerks, private teachers and housewives, were deployed for evaluation of answer sheets.
Which HT has seen, the examination process was repeatedly compromised across its three stages of evaluation, with answer scripts moved out of secure government custody, qualified evaluators sidelined, unauthorised personnel brought in and widespread alterations detected through forensic examination, according to the SIT report.
