A few employees of the Electricity Board, a junior assistant in the Elementary Education Department, a headmaster, a call taxi driver and a canteen owner in the DPI complex on College Road acted as middlemen in the manipulation of results of the examination held for the recruitment of lecturers to government polytechnics, according to the Cyber Crime Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB).
The wing has arrested 15 persons so far. Four persons of a New- Delhi based private company were also arrested. The suspects charged ₹25 lakh each from candidates to manipulate the results.
Deputy Commissioner of Police S.R. Senthilkumar said, “We have arrested 15 persons in connection with the offence and are looking for prime accused Subramani in the case. Five of the 15 were detained under the Goondas Act.”
Last year, the Teachers’ Recruitment Board proposed to conduct a written examination for direct recruitment to fill 1,058 posts of lecturers in government polytechnic colleges.
Datatech Methodex Private Limited was permitted to execute all work, starting from online applications to final publication of results.
A total of 1,70,366 candidates applied for the post and 1,33,566 candidates appeared for the examination.
The scam came to light after Vijayanand, a candidate petitioned the Prime Minister’s office and the Chief Minister’s cell last November. The complainant alleged that EEE candidates who scored very low marks in TNEB recruitment exam got ranks in the exam.
Results withdrawn
After revaluation, it was found that the marks of 196 candidates were altered. The results published on November 7 were withdrawn on December 11, as per the decision of the board.
Another complaint by K.M. Shankar addressed to the Home Secretary was received by the TRB on November 29. He alleged that malpractices were committed after taking a bribe of ₹25 lakh from two individuals.
On December 20, D. Uma, member secretary of Teachers’ Recruitment Board lodged a complaint with the CCB alleging that the processing company nominated Shaik Dawood Nazzar as programmer for processing and evaluating OMR answer sheet data, preparing merit and certificate verification list and the final selection list.
On suspicion, Shaik Dawood Nazzar was interrogated. He admitted that he manipulated the scanned OMR answer sheet images to award higher marks to some candidates and that he took money from one Ganeshan.
The main suspect, Subramanian, an EB staff, is at large.
Shaik Dawood Nazzar surrendered before the Ponneri court in December, while Ganeshan, a call taxi driver and an accomplice of Subramanian, was arrested by the CCB at Mogappair.
In January, the CCB arrested I. Ragupathy, the manager of a private firm and Suresh Paul, another staff of the company in Kolathur. It arrested Chinnasamy, headmaster of a government school in Dindigul who acted as middleman. Subsequently, S. Paramasivam and V.T. Nathan of a private company were apprehended by the police.
Vinayagamoorthy, a junior assistant in the Department of Elementary Education, Sivaraman and Sankaravel, EB staff and friends of the main accused Subramanian, Dinesh, relative of the main accused, Gunasekaran, a private frim employee, Brammanayagam, staff of a car showroom, Subramanian of Choolaimedu and Baskar who ran a canteen on the DPI campus are the list of persons who have been arrested so far.
