The investigation conducted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the selection of “Firemen and Drivers” in the Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES) Department detected hue bungling and manipulation.
During the course of the investigation, the ACB sleuths detected that over 100 selected candidates had secured lower marks than the cutoff but they were shown selected through fraudulent means and fake marks.
“Out of 690 selected candidates, 109 were found to have secured lower marks than the cutoff marks but were selected by showing them to have secured higher marks in the final selection list than the marks actually secured by them”, spokesperson of the ACB
For instance, candidates actually securing 11, 17, 24 marks were shown to have secured 90 marks each in the final selection list. Similarly, it was found that five real brothers from district Budgam were selected and multiple such instances, besides, the selection of some relatives of officials of the F&ES Department, and the instances of the selected candidates belonging to the same localities have surfaced during the course of inquiry.
“During the course of the probe, the question papers were found beyond the comprehension of candidates who have studied up to 8th standard which is the required minimum qualification. A manual review of the Optical Marks Recognization (OMR) sheets vis-a-vis answer keys revealed discrepancies in the selection process”, the spokesperson said.
ACB registered case to conduct inquiry
J&K ACB registered a case in irregularities committed in the selection process of Fireman/Fireman Drivers in the Fire & Emergency Services (F&ES) Department.
A communication dated 24.07.2024 of the General Administration Department (GAD), along with a report of the inquiry committee constituted by the Government to inquire into the allegations of irregularities committed in the selection process of Fireman/Fireman Drivers during the year, 2020 in the Fire & Emergency Services (F&ES) Department, was received in this Bureau conveying therein the decision of competent authority for investigating the matter.
The inquiry committee so constituted, recommended criminal investigation through ACB on the allegation of paper leakage viz-a-viz the other aspects so recommended by the inquiry committee.
On receipt of the said communication, the matter was initially enquired by the ACB, which revealed that in the year 2013, the Chairman, Departmental Recruitment Board (DRB), Fire & Emergency Services, J&K, had issued an Advertisement Notice No. 01 of 2013 dated 12-03-2013 for the posts of Fireman/Fireman Drivers and other tradesmen posts.
Recruitment process was terminated initially after the detection of discrepancies
The examination was conducted by the DRB, however, in view of certain discrepancies in the selection process, the Government, vide Order No.381-Home of 2016 dated 05.07.2016, terminated the whole process of selection.
The recruitment process was again started in the year, 2018 in accordance with the earlier Advertisement Notice issued in the year 2013 as per directions passed by the High Court of J&K with no change/modification in the Advertisement Notice.
The government also directed to conduct recruitment through the Transparent Recruitment Process (TRP) to be engaged through an open bid system. Accordingly, e-NIT No. 01 of 2018 dated 05.04.2018 was issued by the Directorate of F&ES for engaging the TRP agency in which Hyderabad-based M/s Timing Technologies India Pvt. Ltd was selected to conduct the physical test/written examination across J&K.
Ineligible agency engaged in conducting test
The resource person of M/s Timing Technologies India Pvt. Ltd was Maharaj Krishan Wali. Following allegations of mass copying etc. in the written test, the Government, vide Order No. 880-Home of 2019 dated 01.08.2019, cancelled the written examination and ordered to conduct written examination afresh. The Government, vide communication dated 06.09.2019, further directed to change the TRP Agency M/s Timing Technology India Ltd.
The probe conducted in the matter further revealed that the Directorate of Fire & Emergency Services issued e-NIT No. 01 of 2020 dated 01-01-2020 for inviting tenders from reputed vendors/firms having proven experience of conducting similar exercises at least in two UTs/State Police/Central Para Military Forces/Fire & Emergency Service for processing and conducting of written examination under TRP.
In response to said e-NIT, 06 TRP agencies participated, out of which M/s UMC Technology Pvt. Ltd Kolkata was worked out as the L-1 with a quoted price of Rs. 107.50 per candidate as per the Financial Comparative statement finalized by the Technical Committee constituted for the purpose.
The L-1 bidder raised some genuine queries relating to a number of candidates and centers, but without assigning any reason, negotiations were made with the L-2 bidder, M/s LMES IT LLP, Jammu. The Technical Committee negotiated the rates with L-2 @ Rs. 179 per candidate against the quoted rate of Rs. 185 per candidate. After getting approval from the Chairman of DRB, the work order was given to the ineligible agency, M/s LMES IT LLP, Jammu, on 02.03.2020 by ignoring the L-1 bidder without any justification.
The written examination was conducted on 20.09.2020 and the selection list of Fireman/Fireman Drivers was issued on 03.10.2020 wherein a total of 690 candidates, including 592 Firemen and 98 Firemen Drivers, were selected vide Order No 823 of 2020 dated 04.10.2020 of Directorate F&ES/Chairman, DRB.
It further surfaced that favoritism was shown in awarding the contract to L-2 Firm, M/s LMES IT LLP, which had no proven experience of conducting similar exercises as mandated in the e-NIT by sidelining the L-1 bidder. Further, the bid of L-2 was accepted by the DRB knowing that L-2 was a newly formed Firm in November 2017 and Maharaj Krishan Wali (main partner with 99% share) was the same person who had earlier remained as resource person with M/s Timing Technology (P) Ltd. As per CVC guidelines /circular/order, the negotiation shall be held with L-1 only and there should be re-tendering in case the L-1 bidder backs out, but the guideline /order was not complied with in this case.
By acting in this manner, the then members of the Departmental Recruitment Board, members of Technical Committee, Officers/Officials of F&ES Department, who remained associated with the recruitment process, being in league with each other as well as with M/S LMES IT LLP through its main partner Maharaj Krishan Wali (L-2 bidder), abused their official positions for extraneous considerations whereby they awarded work of TRP in favor of L-2 bidder by ignoring L-1 bidder in an illegal and unjustified manner, besides manipulated the selection list by preparing fake / fabricated record in order to confer undue benefits upon themselves and the beneficiaries.
The aforementioned facts constitute the commission of offences punishable under sections 7, 13(1) (a) & 13 (2) of PC Act 1988 (as Amended in 2018) and 120-B, 420, 467, 468 & 471 IPC, against the members of Departmental Recruitment Board, including the Chairmen, Members of the Technical Committee, officers/officials of F&ES department, who remained associated with the recruitment process, M/S LMES IT LLP through its main partner Maharaj Krishan Wali, beneficiaries and others. Consequently, a case FIR No 01/2025 was registered in Police Station ACB Central.