The Opposition BJP in Jharkhand demanded on Sunday that an independent probe, either by CBI or a sitting high court judge, be held to look into alleged anomalies surrounding the recently released preliminary test results of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) examinations.

Addressing a press conference at the party office, state BJP president Deepak Prakash said, “It is beyond doubt that the recently held exam was conducted in violation of rules and without any transparency. JPSC is acting at the behest of the state government. We demand that the state government either initiate a CBI probe or get it investigated by a sitting judge of the high court. Also, the JPSC chairman (Amitabh Choudhary) must be sacked immediately.”

Responding to the allegations of candidates, who had mounted a statewide protest, JPSC had on November 25 published the cut-off marks for the JPSC 7 and 10 examinations held together in September. It also responded to the 20 questions raised by the protesting aspirants.

Prakash, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, claimed that the JPSC's response to the allegations of aspirants was contradictory. “As per JPSC, cut-off marks for BC-2 category students was 252. But how come many students who scored 230 in this category were declared as pass in merit list? In response to a question over passing of candidates with serial roll numbers, JPSC said it was due to unavoidable circumstances. Such has been its replies to the anomalies pointed out by the protestors.

“JPSC will never probe its wrongdoings with sincerity. Therefore, the Hemant Soren government must order an independent probe,” he added.

Prakash also criticised the police for resorting to lathicharge on protesting aspirants on November 23, describing it as pre-planned. “The protestors who were on peaceful stir in Morabadi were called by JPSC chairman for talks. However, as they began proceeding to the JPSC office, they were stopped by police and lathicharged. Along with the students, a few of our MLAs who were present there, also got injured, and false police cases slapped against them. However, the BJP doesn’t fear such fake FIRs,” he said.

JPSC held 7 to 10 civil services exam together on September 19 this year in which more than 3.5 lakh students had appeared against 252 vacancies. Results of the PT were out on November 2 and since then the several aspirants have been protesting against the exam citing anomalies in the results citing how several candidates with serial wise roll numbers at select examination centre in few districts were declared pass while other high scorers were excluded from the merit list.

The saffron party however on Sunday rejected JPSC’s response accusing the commission and the state government of resorting to ‘organised’ exam scam.