Vijay Kumar’s apartment in Ranchi that was raided on Thursday. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, Oct. 21: In a major breakthrough, the state vigilance bureau today nabbed one Vijay Kumar, a veterinary doctor and teaching associate at Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) in Ranchi, for playing a key role in selling state civil service jobs for money in what has now come to be known as the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) scam.

“We have collected incriminating documents and even a compact disc that reveal that Vijay Kumar acted as the principal agent of former JPSC chairman Dilip Prasad when it came to collecting hefty sums from job aspirants and even ensured that they cleared the written papers and viva voice for the various exams conducted by JPSC,” inspector general (vigilance) M.V. Rao told The Telegraph.

Rao revealed that based on information received from reliable sources, first a vigilance team headed by a magistrate was constituted. The team today swooped down on Kumar’s Morabadi residence in Ranchi. Apart from jewellery, a number of incriminating documents was recovered during the raid, which continued till late in the evening.

Vigilance officers will interrogate Vijay Kumar tomorrow to unravel the story of the JPSC scam that has so far seen the retrenchment of 19 state officials out of a total 172 candidates who were appointed through the second civil services exams of 2007-08 conducted by Jharkhand Public Service Commission.

Vigilance insiders revealed that several more officials, who have allegedly bribed their way into the state services, were also likely to face the boot.

FIRs were lodged on June 9 after state Governor M.O.H. Farook ordered the state vigilance bureau to lodge the same against former JPSC chairman Dilip Prasad, three former members — Gopal Prasad Singh, Radha Govind Singh Nagesh and Shanti Devi — and former JPSC secretary Alice Usha Rani Singh for acts of grave irregularities, forgery, interpolation and fraud in conducting the second civil services examinations of 2007-08.

The IG vigilance added that a total of nine cases, all related to JPSC, are being probed by the state vigilance bureau. The cases being probed are irregularities allegedly committed by JPSC members in the appointments of civil servants, engineers, teachers, cooperative officers, bazar samiti officials, appointments of lecturers for Ranchi University and Sido-Kanhu Murmu University.

However, he alleged that the probe process was being hampered by the delay on the part of JPSC to furnish the required documents to the state vigilance.

A number of documents are also reported to be missing. Rao said while the chief secretary and director general of police will review the JPSC cases tomorrow, he would personally visit the JPSC office tomorrow to sort out the matter.

Meanwhile, with all four former JPSC members and its secretary still evading arrest even more than four months after FIRs were lodged against them, the vigilance has decided to move court to attach the properties of all accused, thereby forcing them to give themselves up before the law.