The special investigation team (SIT) of the Andhra Pradesh police, which probed the lapses in the conduct of Group-I job recruitment examination during the previous YSR Congress Party government, has flagged several irregularities in the valuation process, officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The SIT, constituted by the state government under the auspices of Crime Investigation Department chief Ravi Shankar Ayyanar on February 14, following a direction from the state high court, submitted its report to the court on August 10. The Group-I examination (mains) was held from December 14 to 20, 2020, with 114,473 aspirants competing for 169 posts, including deputy collectors and revenue divisional officers. The APPSC initially used digital valuation and declared the results on April 1, 2021, shortlisting 326 candidates. The controversy led to multiple petitions filed by the aspirants before the high court in 2022. On March 13, 2024, the high court held that the second and third valuations were illegal and irregular and ordered the conduct of a fresh Group-I (mains) examination. The SIT investigation also disclosed that as many as 452 university subject experts engaged by the APPSC were not used. Instead, 66 data-entry operators, including electricians, security guards, clerks, private teachers and housewives, were deployed for evaluation of answer sheets. After the Haailand exercise was set aside, APPSC conducted another manual evaluation in Vijayawada in 2022. The SIT found further security and procedural lapses, including the printing of 48,442 duplicate OMR sheets carrying original barcode numbers without high court approval.
The investigation also found that the mandatory independent second and third evaluations were not actually carried out, with second-evaluation marks allegedly generated by adding or subtracting one or two marks from the first evaluation.
Which HT has seen, the examination process was repeatedly compromised across its three stages of evaluation, with answer scripts moved out of secure government custody, qualified evaluators sidelined, unauthorised personnel brought in and widespread alterations detected through forensic examination, according to the SIT report.
