Patna, April 19: IAS officer C.K. Anil, who has gone underground ever since his name cropped up in the question paper leak scandal, has demanded a CBI inquiry into how the examination papers for the clerical level competitive examination conducted by the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) found their way into the public domain earlier this year.

Anil, a 1991 batch officer posted as officer on special duty (OSD) at the BSSC, wrote letters recently to the President of India, the Prime Minister's Office and to the Union minister of state in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, requesting them to constitute a CBI probe into the question paper leak. The state government has so far refused to recommend a CBI probe into the BSSC scam.

Anil, described as a no-nonsense officer by most of his colleagues, alleged he was being victimised at the behest of some bureaucrats and politicians.

"I am being targeted by the Patna police's special investigation team (SIT) in the question paper case out of political vendetta," Anil told The Telegraph on Wednesday in a telephonic conversation from an undisclosed location.

The senior IAS officer alleged that he had exposed the promotion irregularities which surfaced in August last year. Three IAS officers belonging to the 1992 batch - Chanchal Kumar, Harjot Kaur and Dipak Kumar - were promoted to the rank of principal secretary in June 2016. Chanchal was posted as principal secretary to the chief minister. The Union government, however, turned down the Bihar government's recommendation and directed it to revert the three newly promoted officers to secretary rank with retrospective effect as they didn't fulfil the requisite criteria i.e. service length of 25 years.

"The state government was caught red-handed while giving promotion to these officers, out of turn, without completion of 25 years service and against IAS Pay Rules 2007," Anil has said in the letter.

The Telegraph has a copy of the letter.

According to Anil, the government brass, including chief minister Nitish Kumar, chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, development commissioner Shishir Sinha and principal secretary, home, Amir Subhani, who was then holding additional charge of principal secretary of general administration department, had to backtrack on the promotions.

"The ulterior motive of the state government can be gauged from the fact that the government failed to rescind its illegal promotion order despite the order of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)'s withdrawal of payslip," he added.

Anil also alleged that the SIT headed by the Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj, which is probing the BSSC scam, was working under the influence of those bureaucrats. "I have apprehension that the SIT, which had been constituted by the government to probe the BSSC question paper leak, has been directed to create evidence and fix me (Anil) at any cost. The SIT is doing what it has been told," the senior IAS officer has written.

Anil said he had received several threat calls ever since the question leak surfaced. He dismissed the allegation that that he was evading the SIT or was on unauthorised leave. "I had applied for three months' medical leave to the chief secretary by registered post from March 1, 2017 to June 1, 2017 because of spinal cord injury," he added.

Anil also denied that he had put his signature on the leave application of the then BSSC chairman and 1987 batch IAS officer Sudhir Kumar (who was arrested on February 24 this year) as claimed in the investigation conducted by the SIT. "I have mentioned this aspect in my application forwarded to the chief secretary on March 17 this year," Anil said.

Anil, who was posted as adviser to the state planning board, the chairman of which was the chief minister, clarified that the clerical grade examination was an open book examination wherein candidates were allowed to carry three books (not guides). "Such an examination was conducted for the first time in the state," he claimed.

Around 18 lakh examinees were issued admit cards for the preliminary examination held on January 29 and February 5 this year. Of them, 8,000 were to be selected for the mains examination. However, the state government cancelled the examination after the controversy over leak of question papers erupted, Anil said.

Efforts to contact chief secretary Anjani Singh for his comments proved futile. SIT chief Maharaaj, however, asserted that the investigation was progressing on the basis of scientific evidence. He also denied that the SIT was working under pressure either from any politician or bureaucrat.

The SIT has so far arrested 41 persons, including then BSSC chairman Sudhir Kumar and its secretary Parmeshwar Ram, in the case. The SIT is likely to submit the charge-sheet within a week.