HC gives split verdict on petition by MPSC chairman

Mumbai, Jan 24 (PTI) A division bench of the BombayHigh Court today gave a split verdict on a petition filed byformer IPS officer and chairman of Maharashtra Public ServiceCommission (MPSC), Gyanchand Verma, seeking deletion of hisname as a suspect in the 2004 multi crore MPSC scam.

While Justice A M Khanwilkar allowed Verma''s petition,Justice A P Bhangale dismissed it. As the two judges havedifferentiated in their verdict, the petition will now bereferred to a single bench.

Verma had approached the High Court last year seekingfor his name to be removed from the supplementary chargesheetfiled in the MPSC paper leak scam in June 2004.

In 2001, MPSC had conducted examination for theappointment of assistants in Mantralaya. However, there wereallegations of malpractices in the exam and a case wasregistered by the Anti Corruption Bureau in 2002.

According to ACB, the original answer sheets werereplaced with fake ones, computer data was tampered with andinterview marks were hiked arbitrarily. 29 persons werearrested including former MPSC chairman S D Karnik, formerexamination controller Sudhakar Sarode, MPSC member SayaliJoshi and deputy superintendent of police Baban Kadam in thecase.