Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Chairman R. Sellamuthu, who is facing allegations of corruption in recruitment of candidates, has submitted his resignation to Governor K. Rosaiah highly placed sources said.
His resignation, submitted to the Governor on Thursday, came ahead of searches across the State by the vigilance directorate police on Friday at the residences of candidates allegedly recruited by corrupt means. The Governor's office is learnt to have referred the matter to the State government, and a formal notification will be issued after the resignation is accepted.
Mr. Sellamuthu, an IAS officer of the 1976 batch, was appointed to the post in January 2010, when the DMK government was in office. His term was due to end in June this year on his attaining the age of 62.
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption had registered a criminal case against Mr. Sellamuthu and all the 13 Members of the TNPSC following allegations of corrupt practices in the recruitment of candidates to various posts, including Group-I Services. The case was based on a complaint by TNPSC Secretary T. Udhayachandran, who wrote to the Chief Secretary about certain irregularities. When investigators searched the premises of 53 candidates in 21 districts on Friday, a majority of them allegedly admitted to having paid huge bribes to TNPSC members to get full marks in the interview. “Many of the candidates are in Government service now. They gave details of the bribe paid to the members through middlemen. The searches were based on evidence that the candidates paid bribes to get full marks in various recruitments conducted by the TNPSC… candidates who paid bribes got 100 per cent marks in the personal interview,” an investigator said.
When the DVAC conducted searches on the premises of TNPSC members, officials and middlemen late last year, names, registration numbers or answer scripts of candidates were found. Some members even had unofficial copies of an unpublished list of selected candidates to various posts for which the TNPSC conducted the recruitment.
Cyber security experts of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Thiruvananthapuram, who seized the TNPSC server and other gadgets for analysis on December 13, are expected to submit their findings soon.
In a separate development, Nallathambi, an advocate of Madurai, lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner here that he paid Rs. 67 lakh to one Uma Maheswari who, he alleged, had promised to get him the post of Member, TNPSC. However, she neither got him the post nor returned the money.
Nallathambi is the younger brother of former Assembly Speaker K Kalimuthu. Ms. Uma Maheswari, who also came to the Police Commissioner's office, maintained that she had never met the complainant. Commissioner of Police J.K. Tripathy said the matter was referred to the Central Crime Branch for investigation.
