The High Court of Karnataka on Monday granted conditional bail to suspended ADGP (Recruitment), Amrit Paul in the police sub inspector (PSI) recruitment scam.
He has been in custody since his arrest on July 4, 2022.
Paul’s petition for bail was allowed by Justice Mohammad Nawaz on the conditions that he would cooperate with the investigation, not tamper with the evidence and not try to influence the investigating officer. He is also restricted from travelling abroad. The bail bond is for Rs five lakh with two sureties.
Paul’s advocate M S Shyamsundar argued that the prosecution was filing the charge sheet to the trial court in tranches, which was against the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. He has been in custody for over a year and since the trial court has not taken cognisance of the offences alleged against him, he was entitled to bail, the lawyer told the court.
Government advocate Prasanna Kumar opposed the bail plea on grounds that Paul was directly involved in tampering with the answer sheets of the PSI recruits. He had also allegedly provided fake medical documents to be absent from work on the days the tampering took place. He was on medical leave on October 7, 8 and 16.
But an investigation found that he had not taken any treatment at a private hospital in Yelahanka New Town as claimed by him. He had left the keys of the strong room in his private room on those days. This was used by others to tamper with the answer sheets, Kumar said.
Following the scam in recruiting 543 PSIs, the government cancelled the examination conducted for the purpose. The answer sheets of some candidates from whom police officers and others had allegedly taken bribes were tampered with to give them higher ranking. Paul was ADGP (Recruitment) when the scam took place.
