HP art teachers’ recruitment paper leak: Question paper was sold for ₹1 lakh, reveals vigilance inquiry

The former senior superintendent in the secrecy branch of the Himachal Pradesh Service Selection Commission (HPSSC), Uma Azad, who was the kingpin of the examination paper leak racket, had sold the question paper of art teachers’ recruitment exam to her neighbour for ₹1 lakh, the vigilance investigation has revealed.

Uma was arrested in December last year after the first paper leak was detected ahead of examination for the junior office assistant (information technology).

The art teachers’ recruitment exam was held in October last year. The woman candidate to whom Uma sold the paper has been identified as Sunita Devi, a native of Ghumarwin in Bilaspur district. She had been living in a rented accommodation near Uma’s residence in Hamirpur for long.

The vigilance bureau detected the latest paper leak while probing bank transactions made by the main accused and Uma’s son Nikhil Azad.

Sunita Devi, who was on the 28th position on the merit list, has been booked under relevant provisions of law. However, she has not been arrested yet.

Additional superintendent of police (vigilance) Renu Sharma said, “We have booked Sunita Devi for buying the question paper from Uma Azad for ₹1 lakh.”

As per vigilance bureau officials part of the ongoing probe, Devi got acquainted with Uma as they lived in the same neighbourhood. Devi had told Uma about her having applied for the post of art teacher in the education department.

Uma offered to provide her the question paper in exchange of ₹1 lakh. Devi had made two transactions of ₹50,000 each to the bank accounts of Uma and her son, the officials said.

Now scrapped, the HPSSC, Hamirpur, had issued notification for the recruitment to fill 314 posts of drawing teachers in education department in May 2022. The exam was held in October. As many as 971 candidates had cleared the exam. The document verification was done in December and only final result was to be declared.

However, before the result could be declared, the vigilance bureau busted the paper leak racket in December 2022 following a complaint by a JOA-IT aspirant. The paper leak prompted the state government to first suspend the HPSSC and then disband the agency that conducted recruitments for class 3 and 4 posts.

The process of pending recruitments has been shifted to the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC), Shimla, till a new agency is constituted.

The vigilance SIT has been probing recruitment exams conducted by the HPSSC in the last three years — since kingpin Uma was posted in the secrecy branch, the wing which has the responsibility to keep the question papers locked in vault until a particular exam is held.

So far, the vigilance bureau has registered three FIRs in the paper leak case. It has also got the permission to prosecute former secretary of HPSSC Jitender Kanwar. He was posted in the HPSSC for six years and was divested of his duties after the paper leak.