Kalaburagi, Apr 29 (IANS): Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths on Friday arrested the kingpin of PSI recruitment scandal, BJP leader Divya Hagaragi after 18 days.
The CID special team headed by DCP Prakash Rathod took Divya Hagaragi into custody in Pune city of Maharashtra.
Archana, the exam superintendent at Jnanajyothi English School, and three others were also taken in custody for giving shelter to main accused Divya Hagaragi.
Six police teams were formed for arresting Divya Hagaragi as the ruling BJP was repeatedly questioned by Congress and alleged that it is giving shelter to her.
CID had also served a second notice to Congress MLA Priyank Kharge to appear before them in connection with the scandal. The CID had issued notice to him on April 22 to appear before them with the audio record he released between a candidate and a middleman.
On Wednesday, the Karnataka government transferred ADGP Recruitment Amrit Paul. The Congress had made allegations on him in connection with the scandal.
The police have arrested 16 persons in connection with the scandal so far including both BJP and Congress leaders. The examinations for the 545 posts of PSIs were held in October last year. As many as 54,041 candidates appeared for exams. The results were announced this January.
Later, the allegations surfaced that candidates who gave a very poor performance in descriptive writing got maximum marks in Paper 2. However, the police department and the Home Minister denied any irregularities in PSI exams.
One of the candidates filed an RTI application seeking information on OMR sheets of one of the candidates. Though the application was rejected, the OMR sheet of the candidate appeared in public domain. Police sources say that Veeresh, the candidate, had attended only 21 questions in paper 2 but got 100 marks. He was given seventh rank.
Congress MLA Priyank Kharge had alleged that more than 300 of the 545 candidates had paid Rs 70 to 80 lakh bribe to officials and ministers to become PSI. Ruling BJP has challenged him to produce evidence before CID.