All out attempts being made by Commission to hush-up matter
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 3: At a time when all out efforts are being made to hush up ‘illegal’ activities in the major recruiting agency of Jammu and Kashmir, the Crime Branch has begun preliminary enquiry into forgery of policy documents of Public Service Commission. Moreover, a three member committee of the Forensic Science Laboratory has corroborated the earlier report about counterfeiting of certain documents, which is aimed at maintaining the deep rooted nexus of some members, officials and consultants of the Commission in order to deprive Jammu of its due share in the recruitment for gazetted posts in various Government departments.
Official sources said that after analyzing the complaint based on the revelations made by the EXCELSIOR on April 23, 2017 and June 4, 2017 under titles “Transparency, fairness at stake in PSC due to nexus of certain officers” and “Policy documents of J&K PSC found forged to maintain deep rooted nexus”, the Crime Branch has started preliminary enquiry and entrusted the task to some senior officers.
The future course of action will be decided by the Crime Branch on the conclusion of preliminary enquiry, sources said while disclosing the complainant has also submitted copy of FSL Report No. 32/ Doc/ FSL/ 2017 dated May 22, 2017, which was also exclusively published by EXCELSIOR.
“As in this report the FSL has explicitly established forgery of policy documents by the Public Service Commission, the Crime Branch would have no other option but to go in for registration of formal FIR after completion of preliminary enquiry”, sources said.
The complainant Ankur Sharma has sought registration of FIR against all those who were involved in forging of policy documents and subverting the entire selection process to the disadvantage of meritorious candidates thereby deriding a constitutional institution into an organized recruitment mafia, sources said.
Meanwhile, sources said that a three-member committee constituted by the Director Forensic Science Laboratory has corroborated the earlier report of Laboratory whereby forgery of policy documents of PSC was clearly established. This has made it clear that all is not well in the Commission and unless an FIR is registered the deep-rooted nexus cannot be completely exposed.
“Instead of getting the matter enquired on the basis of FSL report obtained earlier, the Chairman of PSC again approached Director FSL for getting the documents re-examined. Moreover, he, in his formal letter in this regard, requested for getting the process done only in Kashmir without specifying any reason behind such an unwarranted plea”, sources informed.
Acting on the letter of PSC Chairman, Director FSL constituted three-member committee headed by Scientific Officer (Documents). But much to the surprise of PSC Chairman, the three-member committee also corroborated the earlier findings, sources said.
“The committee has not only corroborated the earlier findings but also replied to other points mentioned in the letter of PSC”, sources in FSL said while disclosing that the committee has explicitly mentioned in the report that forgery was conducted on certain pages of the documents in question.
They disclosed that even after receiving report of three-member committee the Commission has not decided to get the FIR registered and rather made attempts to hush up the matter, which otherwise has tarnished the image of the Commission in the eyes of the every citizen of the State.
“It is not understandable as to why no seriousness is being shown in getting the guilty punished so that trust of the people in this major recruiting agency of the State is restored”, sources regretted.
It is pertinent to mention here that soon after appointment of new Chairman and Members of the Public Service Commission (PSC), a meeting of the major recruiting agency was convened on July 28, 2015 and several decisions were taken aimed at exercising utmost impartiality, objectivity and efficiency in its functioning and being fair to all in the selections for various posts in the Government departments.
About the engagement of consultants to conduct the business of the Commission, it was decided to re-engage Hakim Ghulam Jeelani, former Secretary Services Selection Board and M A Bhat, former Under Secretary of the Public Service Commission as consultants only for a period of six months and thereafter new consultants will be engaged.
This decision was taken on the ground that these consultants were working in the Commission for more than five years and new faces should be inducted so as to allay apprehensions from different quarters about the prevailing nexus in the Commission. However, later it was found that minutes of meeting held on July 28, 2015 were forged on the issue of engagement of consultants and Chairman has been given powers to extend engagement of consultants from time to time.
Following serious concern by some Members of the PSC, it was decided to get the relevant pages of the minutes of meeting containing initials of Chairman Abdul Latief-u-Zaman Deva, the then Member Tashi Dorje and sitting Member Mushtaq Ahmed Lone forensically examined. Accordingly, in the month of May this year FSL was approached for examination of initials under question.
The Directorate of J&K Forensic Science Laboratory in its report No.32/DOC/FSL/2017 dated May 22, 2017 established forgery of initials of Tashi Dorje, the then Member of the Public Service Commission. Even two initial pages of the minutes have also been found to be tampered with.
“The documents of this case have been carefully examined with scientific aids such as illuminated magnifiers, stereo-zoom microscope, video spectral comparator etc and I have come to the opinion that person who wrote the red enclosed admitted initials stamped and marked A-I to A-5 didn’t write the red enclosed questioned initials similarly stamped and marked Q-1 and Q-2 due to the reasons that differences have been observed between the questioned and admitted initials in the writing habits”, read the earlier report.
“Now, it is to be seen whether the Government takes steps to streamline the functioning of Public Service Commission by acting on two reports of Forensic Science Laboratory or continues to shut its eyes towards the startling revelations and allow the nexus to continue”, sources said.
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