MADURAI
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked a case this week against three ministerial staff and a Grade I police constable from Madurai district police for alleged manipulation of records to favour four candidates during the tests conducted for selection of Grade II constables, firemen and prison constables at the Armed Reserve ground here in August 2017.
The accused were G. Kumar, an administrative officer, R. Balamurugan, a junior assistant, V. Muralitharan, office assistant, and N. Murugesan, a Grade I police constable.
According to the First Information Report filed by the Madurai wing of DVAC, all the accused, who were tasked with specific duties in the selection process, awarded marks fraudulently to the four candidates in the physical efficiency test.
The four candidates included a nephew of Mr. Murugesan.
The physical efficiency tests included a mandatory rope climbing test for men and long jump for women.
As per the FIR, it was carefully ensured by the accused that the four candidates went to a particular counter where the three of the accused were in-charge of overseeing the test and making entries.
All the four candidates were awarded five marks each as if they climbed up to six metres on the rope whereas the candidates did not climb the rope at all.
The FIR also highlighted that three of the four candidates, along with four more, had failed to appear on the first three days of the physical efficiency test and instead appeared only on the last day.
As per procedure, Mr. Balamurugan, who was in-charge of the nodal team for the physical efficiency test, must have reported the absence and the appearance of the candidates on the last day to the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Madurai Range, who headed the Sub-Committee of Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board that handled the selection in Madurai.
However, Mr. Balamurugan failed to report the same to the DIG, allegedly with the intention to fudge the records of the candidates later.
All the four have been booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
