Chennai income tax officials discovers Vyapam-style scam

“Impersonation at examination halls is the modus operandi. Exams were written by somebody else for these candidates, who had paid lakhs of rupees for a syndicate running in Bihar,” sources in the I-T department said. The findings by I-T officials were reported to the Chennai city police through a complaint lodged with the Thousand Lights police station, as well as to SSC.

The SSC (southern region) Chennai is the recruitment agency for the post of multi-tasking staff (MTS) to be appointed in the income-tax department and the two-paper examinations were conducted in February and August 2014.

The scam may have begun to begun to come to light last February when a youth from Vaishali district in Bihar came to join as a multi task staff in thed Chennai office of the income-tax department. The candidate who appeared for the examination, conducted by SSC, was different from the person who reached the I-T office to join duty. The script in the handwritten self-declaration and thumb impression given at the examination hall were not matching those of the person who came to join duty.

An enquiry with the man revealed that he had paid Rs 3 lakh to the syndicate to write the SSC examination for him. He also revealed that the ‘fee’ for multi tasking staff was Rs.3 lakh while that for writing examination for the post of inspectors was Rs.20 lakh.

When officials at the Ayakar Bhavan in Nungambakkam refused to allow him to join duty, he returned to his hometown.

I-T officials are now hoping the SSC and Chennai police will take action to bust the racket that operates from Bihar and pushes undeserving candidates to various departments and ministries through the national recruiting agency.