Almost three months after the recruitment exam of constables was cancelled due to question paper leak, the chairman of the Central Selection Board of Constables (CSBC) and former Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) SK Singhal was removed from his post on Tuesday.
A notification to this effect was issued late evening by the home department, which is under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The Bihar government on Tuesday sacked the chairman of the Central Selection Board of Constables (CSBC) SK Singhal from his post. The move came almost three months after the constables’ recruitment exam was cancelled due to a question paper leak.
A notification to this effect was issued late evening by the state home department.
According to the notification, Shobha Ohotkar has been given the additional charge of the board till further orders. Ohtokar is a 1990 batch IPS officer and director general-cum-commandant general of Bihar home guards and fire services.
Singhal, a former Bihar director general of police (DGP) was appointed as the head of CSBC on January 14, 2023, for three years.
In the first recruitment of this magnitude, the Bihar government came out with 21,391 vacancies of constables for which over 1.8 million candidates applied. The three-day exam was to be held on – October 1, 7 and October 15, this year as the government wanted to complete the exercise before the 2024 elections. However, on the very first day, the questions were leaked and exams were cancelled.
For the government, it was a big embarrassment, as the Opposition attacked it for the lapse and alleged involvement of bigwigs to hush up the case. Following the uproar, the government acted and 74 first information reports were lodged across 23 districts and 80 arrests were made.
It was in 2017, when the question papers of the clerk grade exam conducted by the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) had leaked and gone viral, leading to statewide uproar and subsequent arrest of the top brass of the commission, including the then chairman Sudhir Kumar (IAS) and secretary Parmeshwar Ram.
The investigation by the Economic Offence Unit (EOU) into the CSBC paper leak also pointed to the involvement of bigwigs and the leakage of questions significantly before the commencement of the exam either from the printing Press or the treasury to facilitate a timely supply of answers to the beneficiaries, said an EOU official.
