Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after 18 hours of interrogation.
The extensive questioning took place at the Minister’s official residence on Tuesday, while simultaneous raids were conducted at his home and office. Although the official statement from the central probe agency regarding the reason for Balaji’s arrest is yet to be released, it is speculated to be connected to a money laundering case involving a job racket that occurred during his tenure as a Minister in the former AIADMK government led by the late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa from 2011 to 2015.
Amid the development, let’s take a look at famous government recruitment scams which have come up over the years:
WBPSC Scam
In November 2021, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, a single bench, issued an order for a preliminary inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into alleged irregularities regarding the appointment of Group D staff in state-run schools under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE).
The order was passed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay during the hearing of a petition filed by job aspirants who claimed that the appointments were made after the recruitment panel for Group D staff in state-run schools had already expired. Initially, the petitioners presented a list of 25 individuals who were allegedly recruited illegally. Subsequently, they claimed that more than 500 additional appointments were made in a similar manner, as per a report by Indian Express.
In response, the WBBSE submitted an affidavit to the court asserting that all appointments were made based on recommendations by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). However, the commission itself submitted an affidavit stating that after May 4, 2019, when the panel for the Group D staff requirement had expired, no recommendation letters were issued by them.
The scam exposed leaked question papers, impersonation, and widespread corruption in the recruitment procedure. Former State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, along with several officials of the School Education Department, including MLA Manik Bhattacharya, are currently in custody due to their alleged involvement in the scam.
Maharashtra Recruitment Scams
The Maharashtra government was recently been hit by a series of recruitment scams, according to a report by Indian Express, with five consecutive incidents coming to light. These scams involved various fraudulent activities such as paper leaks and manipulation of answer sheets in government recruitments.
As a result of the investigations conducted by the cyber crime sleuths from Pune City Police, a total of 31 individuals, including senior government officials, middlemen, private entities responsible for recruitment processes, and candidates, were arrested. Additionally, assets worth over Rs 6 crore, believed to have been illegally acquired by the main culprits of the racket, were confiscated, as per the report.
The series of scams began with a probe into a paper leak in the recruitment process for Group D employees in the Health Department, which led to the arrest of several high-ranking officials in the department.
This was followed by an investigation into a question paper leak in the recruitment process of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). The leak was detected on December 10, just two days before the scheduled exam on December 12, resulting in the cancellation of the examination, the report said.
Subsequently, the investigators uncovered a significant scam involving tampering of marks in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) exams conducted in 2019 and 2018.
The most recent scam to be exposed was a paper leak in the Group C recruitment process of the Health Department, which took place during the examination held on October 24.
BSSC Exam Scam
The BSSC Exam Scam uncovered extensive corruption within the government job recruitment process in Bihar. The investigation exposed instances of leaked question papers, impersonation, among other illegal activities.
In 2017, Patna police had filed a charge sheet against eight individuals, which includes suspended IAS officer Sudhir Kumar, in relation to the scam.
Sudhir Kumar, a senior officer from the 1982-batch of the Bihar cadre, held the position of chairman of the BSSC when the question papers were leaked, just before the second phase of the examination that was originally scheduled for February 5, according to a report by Telegraph.
Vyapam Scam
The Vyapam scam, also known as the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board scam, first came to light in 2013. The scam involved candidates bribing officials and manipulating exams by employing imposters to write their answer sheets. The fraudulent activities associated with the scam started as early as 1995 and implicated politicians, senior officials, and businessmen, as per a report by Indian Express.
In 2015, the Supreme Court ordered the CBI to take over the investigation of the Vyapam scam, recognizing the need for a thorough and impartial inquiry into the matter.
REET Scam
A controversy arose when reports surfaced regarding irregularities and paper leaks in various examinations conducted in Rajasthan. The first instance involved the Junior Engineer (JEN) exams held in November 2020, while the second instance concerned the Sub-Inspector (SI) and Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) exams conducted in September 2021.
Following the irregularities in the SI exam, including cheating allegations, seventeen individuals, including the principal of a private school, were arrested in Bikaner and Jaipur for their alleged involvement, according to a report by The Wire.
However, the government faced significant backlash due to the REET exam fiasco, despite the state government’s implementation of extensive security arrangements to prevent irregularities.