Rajasthan state finance panel chief accuses Gehlot of covering up irregularities in RSSB recruitment scam

Rajasthan State Finance Commission Chairman Arun Chaturvedi has accused former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of covering up the irregularities in the OMR sheets of the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSSB) recruitment exams during his tenure.

Responding to criticism from three-time former CM Gehlot over the arrest of five accused staffers of the board and an outsourced agency for rigging OMR sheets in recruitment exams to candidates’ marks for money, senior BJP leader Arun Chaturvedi said the criticism was “nothing but an attempt to conceal and cover up his sins”.

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The former state president of the ruling party said that the Gehlot government had turned a blind eye to irregularities, and that the OMR sheet rigging during its tenure was exposed by the Rajasthan SOG earlier this week.

In contrast, the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led government took the case seriously from day one, set up a Special Operations Group, and ordered a comprehensive probe and investigation, which led to the exposure of the big scam, Chaturvedi said.

“The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police had provided the state government with vital tip-offs in time, and had also recovered Rs 61.5 lakh. Despite this, your government neither constituted an inquiry committee nor made any arrests or filed a case even after more than four-and-a-half years. I want to know from the former Chief Minister why his erstwhile government remained an inactive, mute spectator for four-and-a-half long years, and whom it was patronising,” he said.

The SOG constituted by the Bhajan Lal government has achieved a breakthrough in the case by arresting five accused a few days ago.

“I want to assure the former Chief Minister that the present government is being run on a policy of zero tolerance towards corruption, and that all culprits will be punished appropriately,” Chaturvedi asserted.

Since the arrest of five accused in the scam earlier this week, a bitter war of words has erupted, involving MoS Home Jawahar Singh Bedam, the BJP state leadership, Gehlot, and Chaturvedi.

While MoS Home Bedam alleged that Congress leaders in the previous regime had extended support to the perpetrators of the OMR sheet scam, Gehlot termed the wrongdoings a chronic evil spanning three regimes — two of the BJP, and one of the Congress.

The senior Congress leader demanded that, instead of targeting political rivals, the government should conduct a thorough probe into all exams conducted by the RSSB between 2018 and 2025, and ensure that all those found guilty are punished, irrespective of their support for or allegiance to either the ruling BJP or the Congress.

However, Gehlot added that it appeared the incumbent BJP government, rather than ensuring justice in cases of OMR sheet rigging and other criminal practices, was using paper leaks as a political plank to brand all exams conducted during the Congress regime as tainted.