Manjunath Melakundi, one of the prime suspects in the PSI recruitment scam, would retain carbon copies of Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets with him till he received complete money from candidates striking deals with him, the charge sheet filed by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) before a local court here states.
Assistant engineer with the Irrigation Department, Melakundi, was suspended soon after the court remanded him in the custody of the CID for his alleged role in the scam.
In charge of Amrja reservoir, Melakundi, an expert in committing malpractices in examinations conducted for government posts, would meet candidates in various places. His associates would collect money from the candidate, agree for the deal, and reveal the charge sheet.
Of the two papers for which the examinations were held on October 3, 2021, scoring more marks in Paper 2 was very important. As directed by Melakundi, the candidates would darken bubbles on OMR sheets for which they knew the correct answers. The invigilators of the Jnyana Jyothi English Medium school, Kalaburagi, which functioned as an examination centre, would darken the remaining appropriate bubbles, and adds the charge sheet.
School headmaster Kashinath, school secretary Divya Hagaragi, and SP office fingerprint CPI Anand Metre were part of the malpractices, the CID officials pointed out in the charge sheet.
He had finalised a deal with Veeresh of Sedam, a PSI job aspirant, for Rs 40 lakh. He received Rs 36 lakh from Veeresh, retaining the carbon copy with himself, as he was yet to receive Rs 4 lakh. Melakundi threw the carbon copy soon after the Chowk police registered a case in connection with the scam, revealing the charge sheet.
The police have already arrested Veeresh in connection with the scam.