Bengaluru, Jul 7 (PTI) The Congress in Karnataka on Thursday staged a demonstration inside the Vidhana Soudha premises here, demanding a judicial inquiry into the police sub-inspector recruitment scam, alleging that such large scale irregularities cannot happen without the consent of the state government.

Also Read | Maharashtra Shocker: 29-Year-Old Teacher Rapes, Impregnates Class 10 Student in Osmanabad; Arrested.

Amid drizzles, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress state president D K Shivakumar and senior Congress functionaries held the protest.

Also Read | Kaali Row: Madhya Pradesh Cops Ask Twitter to Remove Access to Leena Manimekalai’s ‘Controversial’ Tweets.

Talking to reporters, Siddaramaiah said a large scale irregularity has taken place in hiring police sub-inspectors, which is an 'injustice' done to sincere candidates.

"The government wanted to recruit 545 sub-inspectors. They (accused) collected money from more than 300 candidates and their OMR sheets were altered at the office of ADGP Amrit Paul, who headed the police recruitment division. This tampering with OMR cannot happen without the backing of ministers and the state government," Siddaramaiah said.

He charged that when the Congress raised this issue, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said no irregularities have taken place. After the case was handed over to the CID, Paul was transferred to internal security division and later arrested, he pointed out.

"Can Paul be arrested without corruption? More than 50 people have been arrested. There is a big web of corruption in which ministers and officials are involved," Siddaramaiah alleged.

The former CM said the Congress while raising the issue of corruption in the recruitment insisted that the CID should not probe this. Instead, judicial inquiry should take place under the supervision of a Karnataka High Court judge.

Since there are charges levelled against the ministers, public representatives and senior officials, a fair investigation is not possible, he alleged.

According to Siddaramaiah, the kingpins are still on the loose.

He accused Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra and Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan of trying to 'cover up' the entire scam.

"Today, we staged a sit-in demonstration. Our struggle will continue till the judicial inquiry is ordered and the kingpins are arrested," the Congress veteran said.

The PSI recruitment exam took place in October last year whose results were out this year in January. More than 54,000 candidates wrote the exam to fill 545 posts.

The scam came to light when the OMR sheet of a candidate was posted on the social media, which showed that despite answering only 21 questions, he scored 100 per cent marks.

This led to the arrest of over 65 people so far including the IPS officer Amrit Paul, deputy superintendents of police, inspectors, a few other police personnel, a BJP leader Divya Hagaragi, who owned the Jnana Jyothi English Medium School in Kalaburagi and the gunman of a Congress MLA.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)