Candidates cashed in on Punjab job scam, conduit got richer by Rs 1.5 cr - Hindustan Times
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Candidates cashed in on Punjab job scam, conduit got richer by Rs 1.5 cr

Hindustan Times | By, Chandigarh
Jul 01, 2016 05:57 PM IST

Punjab recruitments are turning out to be a money-spinning racket, in which not only those who leaked the questions of various selection examinations but also the candidates and go-betweens made a quick buck.

Punjab recruitments are turning out to be a money-spinning racket, in which not only those who leaked the questions of various selection examinations but also the candidates and go-betweens made a quick buck.

Punjab Vigilance Bureau investigating this multi-department scam has identified Malout’s Akali councillor Sham Lal Gupta “Daddi” to be one of the conduits who allegedly made Rs 1.50 crore from a dozen-odd students for getting them in touch with sources that had access to question papers. Arrested early this week, Daddi is reported to have told the vigilance bureau that he had contacted candidates of the local government department tests at the behest of Malout public health department junior assistant Amit Saggar, another tout now caught.

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The duo would put the candidates in touch with Amandeep Singh, an Punsup (Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation) inspector in Muktsar. Amandeep and his Bathinda senior assistant colleague Sukhpreet Singh had allegedly got into the Punsup in March-April last year by accessing the question paper through a contact in Lucknow. Once he had cultivated the source, Sukhpreet had started selling question papers of various recruitment examinations of the local government. Everyone in the chain gained, with the candidates paying anything between Rs 20 and 30 lakh for the question paper. Amandeep is under arrest, while Sukhpreet is on the run.

Vigilance sources said though Daddi was known to be the right hand of senior Akali leader Dyal Singh Kolianwali, he had not named the latter yet in interrogation, though he had accepted his own role. The arrested candidates said they were under the impression that Daddi, Saggar and Kolianwali were “in it together”. Kolainwali could not be contacted.

Read: Punjab govt recruitment tests at PU under VB scanner after paper leaks

THE CONDUIT

Sham Lal Daddi: First-time municipal councillor in Malout, in his 40s, close to Akali strongman and Muktsar district SAD president Dyal Singh Kolianwali, owns a thriving business of tube-well spare parts. He was elected to the civic body amid poll violence last year, for which a case was slapped on the complaining Congressmen.

PUNSUP EMPLOYEES’ LUCKNOW LINK HAD ACCESS TO NEW DELHI PRESS

Almost half-a-dozen inspectors and senior assistants whom Punsup (Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation) hired last year are on the run since their names have come out in the recruitment scam. Punsup’s Bathinda senior assistant Sukhpreet Singh was in touch with a Lucknow source called “Guruji” or “Master ji” for securing the question papers from the printing presses in New Delhi. A woman employee not being named for the purpose of investigation was also in contact with “Guruji”. Vigilance teams have raided Guruji’s suspected hideouts in Lucknow.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Chitleen K Seth was part of Hindustan Times’ nationwide network of correspondents that brings news, analysis and information to its readers. She no longer works with the Hindustan Times.

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