CB-CID arrests constable, four others for TNPSC malpractice

Police sources said that constable K Sithandi, believed to be a fixer in the 2017 Group II (A) exam and 2019 Group IV exam, was arrested by a special CB-CID team from a farm in Sivagangai. The farm belongs to his relatives and he is being taken to Chennai for interrogation.

Sithandi is a head constable attached to Pudupet Armed Reserve wing of 2008 batch. He is said to have worked with a former chairman of TNPSC. The police had already frozen the bank accounts of Sithandi and his wife.

CBCID investigators had been on the lookout for Sithandi and S Jayakumar, the suspected mastermind in the TNPSC scam. They, in connivance with some government officials and middlemen, had collected lakhs of rupees from the aspiring candidates and helped them get government jobs in various departments by fraudulently cracking the TNPSC exams. The police have also issued a look out notice for Jayakumar in all airport across the country.

Sithandi is also accused of fraudulently helping four of his family members, including his wife Shanmugapriya and brother K Velmurugan, clear the Group 2A and Group IV examinations.

The police had already arrested Velmurugan, who was working as an assistant at the Sivaganga District Registrar’s office in Karaikudi, while Sithandi’s wife Shanmugapriya, who is working in a government department, is absconding.

The CB-CID has announced a reward for anyone sharing information leading to the arrest of Jayakumar. The police circulated his photographs to airports, major railway stations and bus stands to prevent Jayakumar from escaping.

The TNPSC had banned 99 candidates from taking Group IV exam after it found that they had manipulated the answers by using a special ink. These candidates from across the State had written the exam at Rameswaram and Keekallarai centres in Ramanathapuram district as per the instructions of the scamsters.

Answer sheets of 52 candidates out of the total 99 were manipulated by the gang who shaded correct responses after the scam.

The CB-CID, on Monday, had arrested MJ Deepak, from Chennai, who had been working in the finance department of State Secretariat; N Vinod Kumar, working at commercial tax department in Vellore; Arun Balaji, working in commercial tax department; and S Devi, working in commercial tax department in Nagercoil.