The malady runs
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31 named people, including a former assistant director of PSC, and 50 to 60 others unnamed.
The five arrested officials and employees were suspended by the PSC on Tuesday.
“At least 50 people were involved in the question leak of the recruitment test of the railway. Among them are several current and former PSC officials,” a high official of the CID told The Daily Star yesterday requesting anonymity.
According to investigators, many people have passed PSC exams after having leaked questions, and they are now working as BCS cadre civil servants.
Those who passed the PSC exams after paying for leaked questions are now in fear of actions against them, sources said.
CID officials said the syndicate leaked questions to at least 10 candidates of the 33rd BCS exam and three of them are currently serving in different cadres of the civil service. Besides, the names of several other cadre officials, including those selected in the 28th and 35th BCS exams, came up during the investigation.
Of the 17 arrestees, six made confessional statements before a Dhaka court on Tuesday.
In his statement, PSC dispatch rider Khalilur Rahman said that he leaked questions to 10 candidates of the 33rd BCS examination. Six of them passed the written test, but three could not pass the viva voce exam, said court sources.
Khalilur also said that he used to introduce the jobseekers to a former top PSC official.
If he was given the go-ahead by that official, the final decision regarding how much the jobseeker would have to pay for getting selected for government jobs.
Khalilur also played a role in the recruitments of some assistant upazila education officers and railway employees, said investigators.
During the 33rd BCS exam in 2012, a case was filed against Khalilur with Shahbagh Police Station over question leak. A departmental case was also filed against him.
At that time, the Rab arrested him. He got out on bail. He was also suspended from the job.
In March 2022, the charges brought against him were withdrawn due to lack of evidence. Since then, Khalilur has been working as a dispatch rider of the PSC.
Investigators said Khalilur was able to get involved in leaking questions due to the backing from the PSC top official.
Touhidul Islam, special superintendent of the CID’s cyber investigation and operations, told The Daily Star yesterday, “Legal action will be taken against those found involved in leaking questions.”
Meanwhile, the PSC yesterday wrote to the Anti-Corruption Commission asking it to investigate the five arrested PSC officials and employees in connection with amassing illegal wealth.
The five are deputy directors Abu Zafar and Jahangir Alam, assistant director Alamgir Kabir, dispatch rider Khalilur, and office assistant Sajedul Islam.
The PSC also asked the ACC to inform it about their wealth.
Meanwhile, sacked PSC driver Syed Abed Ali and several other accused told investigators during interrogation that jobseekers were brought to the “reading booth” two nights before the July 5 recruitment test.
The jobseekers were kept in a rented house in Savar and a warehouse in the capital’s Paltan so that they could memorise the answers to the leaked questions.
Abed rented the house for Tk 40,000 a month in Radio Colony of Savar. He took the leaked questions and answers from Sajedul.
Around 50 jobseekers memorised the answers in the house. Abed took Tk 7 to 8 lakh from each of them, said CID sources.
Before another recruitment test held several months ago, Abed rented another house in the capital’s Mirpur and took 44 jobseekers there. The syndicate collected Tk 4 lakh from each of the candidates.
According to investigation sources, Sajedul in his confessional statement before a court said that he got the question papers for the railway recruitment test from a chest of a PSC member. He said he sold the question paper to Abed and Khalilur for Tk 75 lakh.