PSI Recruitment Scam; Kingpin Rudragowda produced before court remanded to police custody by court

Pramesh S Jain & Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)

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udragowda Patil,prime accused in the PSI exam scam is also accused in the PWD Assistant Engineer recruitment Exam Scam reported in December last year being investigated by Annapoorneshwari Nagar police.

The examination to hire assistant engineers was held on December 14 and a candidate named Veerannagowda Devindra Chikkegowda, a resident of Kalaburagi district, was caught using an electronic device during the examination.

Following the investigation, the police filed a charge sheet against the accused. Chikkegowda has been charged under Section 117 of Karnataka Education Act, Section 66(d) of Information Technology Act and Sections 406, 418, 420, 379, 120(b) and 149 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Manjunath Melakundi, an assistant engineer named in the FIR was arrested, but Rudragowda Patil’s name was missing from the list.

Later, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials probing PSI recruitment scam found that Rudragowda Patil was also involved in the assistant engineer recruitment scam.

RD Patil is 17th accused in the case and the police have arrested 16 persons including the candidates and the chief of exam centre so far.

Patil name came to light when one of the candidate Manjunath Melakundi and Veerannagowda was arrested for using bluetooth devise revealed the name of Patil,stating that many of the candidates have approached him for key answers.

Though the police stumbled upon Patil’s name in the initial stages of investigations,they did not pursue the lead and it is alleged they showed negligence to investigate the case to ascertain the network .

With the fresh revelation by section of media the Annapoorneshwarinagar police based on the directions of the city police commissioner intensified the probe to charge RD Patil .

On Tuesday a team of police went to Kalaburgi and brought him to city under body warrant.He was produced before the court and taken into custody for further investigations.

Reacting to the case Kamal Pant, commissioner of police said a special team is investigating the case,There were lapses in the investigation, deliberately or otherwise, which allowed Rudragowda Patil to continue his illegal activities.

Had he been caught then and probed, irregularities in the PSI recruitment could have been stopped.City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant was reportedly not happy with the investigation and has directed officers to re-investigate the case to find out the lapses done in the case and those found guilty will be dismissed from the service for their lapses he added.