Chennai: The CB-CID has sought the custody of prime suspect and the alleged brain behind the Tamilnadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) examination scam S Jayakumar (45).
He had surrendered before a Saidapet court yesterday and was produced before Egmore court this morning. The CB-CID team searched for him for the past two weeks and arrested 32 people in connection with scams in the 2019 Group IV exam and the 2017 Group II-A exam. The CB-CID is planning to take him into custody for detailed questioning.
Meanwhile, the police have received complaints about the engineers and architects selection by the TNPSC. Also, it has been reportedly decided to completely investigate the exams and recruitments made from 2016.
The Commission had last conducted exams at 32 centres across Tamilnadu. It is alleged that out of 33 candidates who wrote their exam at one particular centre, 28 cleared the examination. The CB-CID will probe into these allegations.
It is said that the malpractice in the TNPSC examinations began in 2016 and that the CB-CID has decided to set up a separate team to probe the case.
Jayakumar of Mugappair and Sithandi of Sivagangai are the main accused in the Group Iv and Group II-A scam. Sithandi reportedly collected Rs 82.5 lakh from seven job aspirants and he made sure they cleared the Group II-A exam.
It may be noted that Jayakumar gave candidates pens with special ink, which disappears after a few hours. Jayakumar then re-shaded the answer sheets to the right answers. Police seized 60 such pens from his house during a raid.
He allegedly got access to the answer scripts through Omkanthan, a Record Clerk who is now in police custody. Following this, TNPSC banned 99 candidates for life from the Group IV exam.