Srinagar: Less than seven months after Article 370 was read down by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led Union government, unknown officials in the Jammu and Kashmir administration allegedly hired a recruitment firm – illegally – and later fabricated the list of candidates who were selected for hundreds of government posts, an official probe has found.
The probe by J&K’s premier Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has once again punched holes in the saffron party’s claims that J&K was freed of corruption after it was bifurcated and downgraded into a Union territory in 2019 and brought under the direct administration of the Union home ministry.
After the erstwhile state was stripped of its special status by the Union government, the Central Bureau of Investigation and ACB among other probe agencies have pointed to irregularities in recruitment drives and schemes which were rolled out by J&K administration.
In its latest probe into the recruitment of 690 fireman and fireman drivers in J&K, the ACB has found that the officials allegedly adopted illegal measures to hire a Jammu-based private firm owned by one Maharaj Krishan Wali which was awarded the contract for conducting a written test for the posts in 2020.
The preliminary probe by the ACB has revealed that the official record of the selection process and the final selection list were allegedly fabricated by unknown officials from the Fire and Emergency Services Department to “confer undue benefits upon themselves and the beneficiaries”.
The alleged scam was initially probed by J&K’s General Administration Department which submitted its findings to the ACB on July 24 this year.
Also read: In the Alleged Insurance Scam Flagged by Ex-Governor J&K Satyapal Malik, Was Probe Delayed?
Among the 690 candidates selected for these posts were five brothers, cousins and some relatives of the fire service officials as well as several groups of candidates from the same localities in Jammu and Kashmir, the ACB probe into the recruitment scam has found.
The probe has revealed that three candidates scored 11, 17 and 24 marks respectively in the exam but in the final selection list each one of them was shown to have obtained 90 marks. Of the total selected candidates, 109 had scored lower marks than the final cutoff, an ACB official said.
The findings of the probe were made public less than three months after Omar Abdullah was sworn into office as the first chief minister of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir following the changes in J&K’s constitutional relationship with the Union of India.
The recruitment for the posts was started by the fire service department in 2013 but the process was terminated in 2016 “in (the) view of certain discrepancies in the selection process”. In 2018, following a tendering process, M/s Timing Technologies India Pvt. Ltd, a Hyderabad based firm was selected for conducting the physical test and written examination across J&K.
However, the recruitment process was again marred by allegations of irregularities, prompting J&K’s home department to halt the recruitment again, on August 1 2019, four days before the BJP-led union government introduced J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 in the parliament under which J&K’s special status was rescinded.
One month and five days later, on September 6, 2019, the administration directed the fire service department to change the Jammu-based recruitment agency.
Rs 107.50 versus Rs 179
On January 1, 2020, the fire services department again invited tenders for conducting the selection process. The ACB probe has found that six firms participated in the tendering out of which M/s UMC Technology Pvt. Ltd, a Kolkata-based firm, emerged as the lowest bidder (L1) which quoted a rate of Rs 107.50 per candidate.
“L-1 bidder raised some genuine queries relating to number of candidates and centres, but without assigning any reason, negotiations were made with L-2 bidder, M/s LMES IT LLP”, a Jammu based firm, at the rate of Rs 179 per candidate.
“After getting approval from Chairman of DRB, the work order was given to ineligible agency, M/s LMES IT LLP, Jammu, on 02.03.2020 by ignoring L-1 bidder without any justification,” the ACB official said, adding that the exam was conducted on September 20, 2020 and the selection list of 592 firemen and 98 firemen drivers was issued on October 3, 2020.
The probe has found that “favoritism was shown in awarding contract” to a firm “which had no proven experience of conducting similar exercise” as laid down in the Notice Inviting Tender.
It found that the bid of “L-2 was accepted by the department knowing that L-2 was a newly formed firm in November, 2017 and Maharaj Krishan Wali (main partner with 99% share) was the same person who had earlier remained as resource person with M/s Timing Technology (P) Ltd.”
According to the guidelines of the Central Vigilance Commission, if the lowest bidder backs out of a contract, the tendering process has to be initiated again. However, the guideline was not followed by the fire service department.
Questions beyond comprehension
“During the course of the probe, the question papers were found beyond the comprehension of candidates who have studied upto 8th standard which is the required minimum qualification. A manual review of the OMR sheets vis-a-vis answer keys revealed discrepancies in the selection process,” the ACB official said.
The ACB has filed a case (FIR No: 1/2025) under sections 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act”, 13 (1) (a) (criminal misconduct by public servant) and 13 (2) (imprisonment for not less than one year extendable to seven years and fine) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and 120-B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 471 (fraudulent or dishonest use of a forged document) of Indian Penal Code against the members of chairman and members of fire service department’s recruitment board along with M/S LMES IT LLP and others.
“Further investigation into the case is underway,” the ACB official said.
