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Patna:Parmeshwar Ram, Secretary, Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC), has been taken into custody by Special investigation team(SIT) probing the question leakage of examination papers for recruitment of grade three employees. For 13,500 vacancies, there were 18 lakh applicants. Examinations were held in two phases on January 29 and February 5, 2017. Police also custody six other employees of the commission after they were questioned by SIT at commission headquarters near Airport and at Bhagwatnagar, Patna, residence of Ram.
SIT found some incriminating documents,including admit cards of some candidates and question papers from the bedsheet of the official. Ram had earlier denied leakage of question papers but during preliminary investigations, it was found the papers had leaked out five days before the examinations. Police had arrested 50 examinees and some setters at Warisialigaj in Nawada district and Patna district centres.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi ( SuMo) on February 8 demanded cancellation of the examinations and said SIT probe was an eyewash. He said an SIT had been constituted after the boat tragedy in river Ganga on Makar Sankranti day on January 15 when 25 people had drowned in the river after returning from Kite festival organised by state tourism department. SITs were set up to probe the lapses during Dussehrah festival in 2014 when 32 people died in Gandhi Maidan and during the Chhath festival, when over two dozen devotees were killed in a stampede a few years back.
Modi said all SIT probes are delayed and no action was taken against any officer and people are losing confidence on the fair conduct of examinations after exposure of Bihar school examination board (BSEB) toppers scam. He said CM Nitish Kumar had been alleging the media and a section of opposition were bringing bad name to the state by highlighting failures of the government. The CM must act or quit, Modi demanded.