Two more IAS officers are on the radar of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) clerical grade examination question paper leak case.

Sources in Patna police said the suspect duo had approached the suspended secretary of the BSSC, Parmeshwar Ram, to get their respective candidates selected as auxiliary nurse midwives.

The revelation came to the fore when the SIT took Parmeshwar on a two-day police remand and interrogated him.

The IAS officers, who hold principal secretary-level ranks, were also in touch with the arrested BSSC chairman, Sudhir Kumar, who is in judicial custody after he was held from Hazaribagh on February 24 this year.

Parmeshwar is learnt to have told the interrogators that he was assigned to clear the appointment of 30 nurse midwife aspirants.

Anand Sharma, a property dealer from the Phulwarisharif area of Patna, provided Parmeshwar the majority of the candidates, said police sources.

Sharma, who was also taken on remand for interrogation, is learnt to have revealed that he had provided several plots of land to Parmeshwar in lieu of favours extended to the candidates. Most of the candidates for the midwife and medical assistant posts were women, an investigating officer quoted Parmeshwar as saying.

Sharma had also promised Parmeshwar a plot in Delhi, the sources said, and Anand Brar, a Delhi-based evaluator the clerical grade examination sheets, had assured Sharma of help in the land deal in the national capital.

Brar is still absconding.

A source in the SIT said Parmeshwar had held his senior Sudhir responsible for the leak of question papers and that the call details of the cellphones of the bureaucrats and politicians who were in touch with Sudhir will expose their involvement in the recruitment scam.

Sudhir, a 1987-batch IAS officer, was in touch with Vineet Kumar and Brar, who were awarded contracts for printing of OMR sheets and answer keys to the BSSC.

The state government had to cancel the clerical grade examination after the leak, and the state's IAS officers are up in arms over Sudhir's arrest.

The tussle between the bureaucracy and the government over Sudhir's arrest aggravated on Thursday. The IAS officers who took part in the protest march in front of the Raj Bhavan on February 27 have been served show-cause notices asking them to explain whether they had taken prior permission for their protest.

The notices, authoritative sources said, have been issued by the joint secretary of the general administration department. The officers have been asked to reply within three days.

The SIT also wants to interrogate Sudhir's father Radha Kant Prasad, who the cops suspect provided question papers and answer keys of two phases of the clerical examination to his grandson Ashish, who has been arrested.

The SIT had searched Sudhir's Hazaribagh residence.

"Since we have gathered evidences, it is pertinent to take Prasad, a retired joint secretary-rank officer, into custody to quiz him," a member of the SIT said.