Former JPSC member Shanti Devi held by Police

Ranchi, June 2: She had been hiding for a year since her other peer were arrested, but lady luck finally frowned for former member of Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) Shanti Devi  as she was held by the vigilance bureau from her house in Morabadi area of Ranchi.

Accused of interpolation irregularities, forgery, and fraud while conducting the second civil services examination of 2007-08, Shanti Devi showed little compunction on being held, and instead launched into a tirade, threatening to expose “everything before the media”.

Soon after her arrest, she was brought to the vigilance headquarters at Audrey House for questioning. She has exposed to evidence of interpolation of marks in the answer sheets of various exams conducted by JPSC and asked to comment.

However, the former JPSC member was in no mood to oblige. No sooner had the investigators began questioning her that Shanti Devi turned hostile, cursing the officers and even alleging that she was being persecuted because she belonged to a lower caste.

When she inquired that where she had been hiding for last year, she refused to reply, instead choosing to state that she was a doctorate in “several subjects” and was being falsely implicated. Later she was produced before the vigilance court, which remanded her to 14 days in judicial custody.

Among Shanti Devi’s co-accused are Dilip Prasad former JPSC chairman  and former members Gopal Prasad Singh and Radha Govind Nagesh. A former lecturer of Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav College in Ranchi, Shanti Devi went on the run on June 9 last year after the Jharkhand  Governor M.O.H. Farook ordered the vigilance bureau to lodge an FIR against the 32 accused in this case.

She is also the prime accused in four other FIRs lodged by the vigilance police on April 27 for blatant misuse of her office in appointments of the state civil servents, of junior and assistant engineers, pharmacy lecturers and two deputy registrars at Ranchi University and Sido Kanhu Murmu University.

She is accused of “illegally” appointing her brother Binod Ram and niece Kumari Geetanjali as block development officers. Ram and Geetanjali were sacked by the state government last year along with 17 others found to have been illegally favoured for appointments.

The former JPSC member, who served as head of the interview boards for various exams conducted by the commission, reportedly misused her office to favour friends and relatives.

Commenting over her arrest IG (vigilance) M.V. Rao told the media. “We had been tracking her for some time. Finally we arrested her this morning. We will soon take her on remand for interrogation,”