The CBI on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary Mahesh Kumar Gupta and two others for alleged manipulation in selecting candidates for the state Information Department in 1998 and taking “illegal gratification”.

The chargesheet was filed in the designated CBI court at Lucknow against Gupta, a 1987 batch IAS officer, Prabhat Kumar Sinha, a Provincial Civil Services officer and the then Additional Director, and Raj Gopal Singh Verma, the then Deputy Director of UP Information Department.

According to the chargesheet, Gupta, during his tenure as Director of Information, was heading a committee which would make appointments for Group C in the Information Department. The CBI alleged that Verma, who was appointed as nodal officer by the committee, tabulated the results of the written test in a computer, copied it in a floppy and loaded it in his home computer.

“Thereafter, they started contacting the prospective candidates and collected illegal gratification from them for selecting them for the posts,” the chargesheet claimed. It annexed statements of candidates recorded by the CBI that they had paid money to the Deputy Director when he visited their homes.

The list of successful candidates so selected was prepared and put up after being duly approved by Gupta but was shot down by the then Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. The appointments file was sent to him without the sheets showing the marks obtained by the candidates in the written test and the interview.

(with PTI)

WHAT CBI SAYS

UP Home Secretary Mahesh Kumar Gupta had, as Director of Information 10 years ago, accepted bribes to appoint Group C staff in the Information Department.

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