 Sanjay Pandita
Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 15: Months after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) unearthed large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of Firemen and Fireman Drivers in the Jammu and Kashmir Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES) Department, the Home Department on Monday terminated the services of 103 appointees found to have been illegally selected.
According to an official order, the terminations were carried out pursuant to the findings of an Inquiry Committee and subsequent investigations by the ACB, which confirmed serious manipulation and irregularities in the recruitment process.
The order cites the inquiry report submitted vide No. PS/Home/J/2024/06 dated February 10, 2024, by the Inquiry Committee constituted under Government Order No. 1513-JK(GAD) of 2022 dated December 12, 2022. It also refers to the General Administration Department’s Office Memorandum No. GAD-VIG0/58/2024-09-GAD dated February 25, 2025, and letters issued by the ACB bearing Nos. ACB-FIR-01/2025-C-15626 dated November 21, 2025, and ACB-FIR-01/2025-C-15992 dated November 28, 2025.
The order states that the Inquiry Committee was tasked with examining allegations of irregularities in the recruitment of Firemen and Fireman Drivers conducted in 2020 by the F&ES Department. “After a detailed examination, the Committee recommended a criminal investigation by the Anti-Corruption Bureau into allegations of paper leakage, manipulation of results, and other serious issues,” it reads.
Acting on these findings, the ACB registered FIR No. 01/2025 on January 2, 2025, and submitted multiple reports establishing large-scale tampering of OMR sheets, fabrication of scanned answer sheets, illegal manipulation of merit lists, and other criminal irregularities.
The ACB probe revealed widespread manipulation of scores and selection lists. Investigators found that over 100 candidates who had scored below the prescribed cutoff were fraudulently shown Months after ACB unearthed large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of firemen, the Home Department terminated services of 103 illegal appointees.
The Committee recommended a criminal investigation by the ACB into allegations of paper leakage, manipulation of results, and other serious issues.
The ACB registered a FIR and submitted multiple reports establishing large-scale tampering of OMR sheets, fabrication of scanned answer sheets, illegal manipulation of merit lists, and other criminal irregularities.
The ACB probe revealed widespread manipulation of scores and selection lists. Investigators found that over 100 candidates who had scored below the prescribed cutoff were fraudulently shown as qualified.
In several startling instances, candidates who had scored as low as 11, 17, and 24 marks were shown to have secured 90 marks. The investigation also revealed cases of nepotism, including the selection of five real brothers from Budgam, along with multiple candidates related to departmental officials and individuals from the same localities.
The probe further noted that the question papers were far beyond the comprehension level of candidates whose minimum prescribed qualification was Class VIII, raising additional concerns about the integrity of the examination process.
A manual scrutiny of Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets vis-à-vis the official answer keys exposed numerous discrepancies in the evaluation process.
According to the ACB, the recruitment process originated from Advertisement Notice No. 01 of 2013, issued on March 12, 2013, by the Chairman of the Departmental Recruitment Board (DRB) of the Fire & Emergency Services Department. While the DRB initially conducted the examination as per the advertisement, the Government terminated the entire recruitment process vide Order No. 381-Home of 2016 dated July 5, 2016, after irregularities came to light.
In 2018, the recruitment process was resumed in compliance with directions from the High Court, strictly in accordance with the original 2013 advertisement, without any amendments to the eligibility criteria.
The Government subsequently directed that the recruitment be conducted through a Transparent Recruitment Process (TRP) via open bidding. As a result, e-NIT No. 01 of 2018 dated April 5, 2018, was issued by the Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services. Hyderabad-based M/s Timing Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. was selected to conduct the physical and written examinations across the Union Territory. |
