HPSC recruitment scam: Haryana Govt dismisses HCS officer Anil Nagar

| | Chandigarh
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HPSC recruitment scam: Haryana Govt dismisses HCS officer Anil Nagar

Wednesday, 08 December 2021 | PNS | Chandigarh

Haryana Government on Tuesday dismissed HCS officer Anil Nagar, who was serving as deputy secretary of the Haryana Public Service Commission over corruption charges.

Nagar, 2016-batch HCS (Haryana Civil Services) officer was arrested last month along with two others by the Haryana Vigilance Bureau for their alleged roles in manipulating the recruitment of dental surgeons by taking bribes from them for enhancing their marks in the written test for the purpose. He was earlier placed under suspension.

“…In the interest of justice, the Governor of Haryana by satisfying that it is not practicable to hold inquiry in the matter against Anil Nagar HCS (under suspension), imposed the punishment of dismissal from service upon him, which shall ordinarily be a disqualification for future employment under the government…,” stated the order issued from the office of Chief Secretary, Haryana.

The dismissal order was issued by the government under Article 311(2) (b) of the Constitution which empowers the competent authority to dismiss, remove or reduce the rank of a government servant without any departmental inquiry.

“Whereas Anil Nagar has been placed under suspension with effect from November 11, 2021, the date of his arrest, there is not an iota of doubt that the defaulter has acted in a manner most reprehensible, which is not expected from a member of the service. The defaulter has exhibited grave misconduct, thereby tarnishing the image of the State Government in the eyes of the general public. Further, such immoral activities bring severe disrepute to the State Government. His continuation in service would be detrimental to the cause of public interest and department discipline. Anil Nagar and besmirched the image of the State Government by attempting to intimate/coerce witnesses and destroy evidence,” the order stated.

The opposition parties—Congress and Indian National Lok Dal—has upped the ante against the State Government over the recruitment scam and have been demanding an independent inquiry into the matter.

The State Government’s order further said, “Anil Nagar remained posted as deputy Secretary in HPSC, which is a high-level post in the Commission, so it has been learnt that he or together with his associates or others, can terrorise, threaten or intimidate witnesses who are going to give evidence against him with fear of reprisal to prevent them from doing so. He is likely to further intimidate the subordinate staff for not giving any evidence against him due to his subordination during his tenure… The competent authority has reasons to believe to dispense with the departmental proceedings/inquiry for the mentioned reasons.”

Giving details about the case, the order, quoting the State Vigilance Bureau report, said, “Anil Nagar had called for the answer sheets of the agreed-upon candidates and had made alterations in the answers and then re-scanned the sheets. In order to avert suspicion, he had asked for a random check of OMR sheets on the pretext of verifying the correctness of the scanning and had made sure the list included the roll numbers of the candidates whose scores had to be altered.”

 

"Search at Anil Nagar's residence led to seizure of Rs 12 lakh cash. On interrogation, Nagar confessed that he had parked money with his associate and Rs 2.10 crore was recovered from his associate. Thus, a total of Rs 3.5 crore cash has been seized so far in the course of the investigation. Further, a handwritten list of roll numbers of the HCS exam was recovered from Nagar's wallet whereas, interrogation of all three (arrested) accused revealed that a total of around 30-32 candidates were involved in all (HSC-15 of which 5 passed and dental surgeon-17 of whom 13 passed,” the order added.

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