New Delhi, Aug 7 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday carried out searches at the premises of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission's then Controller of Examinations after it registered a case against him and others on the allegations of irregularities in 2010 Additional Private Secretary exam.

CBI spokesperson R.C. Joshi said that the agency carried out searches at the premises of Prabhunath in Lucknow in connection with the case registered against him, unknown public servants of the UPPSC and unknown private persons on the allegations of irregularities on the part of the officials, whereby they entered into conspiracy by abusing their official position, resulting in selection of some undeserving candidates.

He said that the UPPSC had advertised 250 posts of APS for direct recruitment through an advertisement dated December 25, 2010 for which the last date for submission of forms was January 21, 2011, and the final result of this exam was declared on October 3, 2017. The official said that it was alleged that rules were "violated" with regard to relaxation of mistakes in Hindi shorthand test in order to favour certain candidates.

"Even though Commission on June 15, 2015 had approved relaxation of 5 per cent errors in Hindi shorthand test, candidates who had committed mistakes upto 8 per cent were also allegedly declared qualified for third phase of examination -- Computer Knowledge Test."

The spokesperson said that the rules were relaxed for few candidates and they were allowed to change their computer certificates. He said that it was also found that in some cases, the requisite computer certificates submitted by some of the candidates were allegedly found to be forged or false and still those candidates were declared qualified by the Commission.

"The evaluation and scrutiny of answer sheets have not been done properly by the experts and scrutinisers. It was also alleged that the improper evaluation had resulted into selection of some undeserving candidates," he added.