Court grants bail to PSI scam accused

A Special Court in Bengaluru granted bail to two accused candidates in the Police Sub-inspector recruitment (PSI) scam.

Accused number one S Jagruth and accused number 17 Rachana Hanumantha were granted bail by the XXIII Additional City Civil and Sessions Court on Friday. Their bail applications were filed on October 14 and October 27 respectively. The primary argument in the pleas was that the charge sheet has already been filed in the case and their continued incarceration wasn’t required.

Senior advocate M S Shyamsundar argued the case for them. Jagrut has been in custody since July 2 and Rachana from August 28. In the PSI recruitment list Rachana was awarded the first rank in the women’s category while Jagrut was ranked fourth.

Their petitions for bail earlier were rejected by both the trial court and High Court. Rachana and Jagrut had incidentally participated in a protest by the PSI candidates against the State government over the PSI scam on April 30.

But days later, both were named in the FIR along with others by the High Grounds police. Rachana had secured 153 marks out of 200 in the written exam. The Forensic Science Laboratory, to which the police had sent their OMR answer sheets however, found discrepancies in it.

The PSI scam has snowballed into a major controversy in Karnataka with the alleged involvement of politicians, senior police officers and others.