ED lays hands on fresh OMR sheets during searches linked to 2017 TRB scam

Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) money laundering probe into the 2017 Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) scam has widened beyond the polytechnic lecturers’ recruitment. The agency seized copies of Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets from at least three other government recruitment examinations during statewide searches on Tuesday, indicating suspected manipulation in multiple recruitment drives.ED launched a state-wide search in 21 places in Chennai, Trichy, Madurai and Coimbatore as part of its money laundering probe into the discrepancies in the lecturers recruitment examination for government polytechnic colleges conducted by the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) in 2017.Though ED sources refused to divulge more information, officers said that carbon copies of the OMR sheets were kept along with copies of various certificates belonging to candidates and other digital evidence.

“We are investigating further into the malpractises in other govt exams,” said an officer.The searches were based on the FIR filed by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) attached to Greater Chennai City Police in 2017. It named the accused as V Subramanian, his associate Suresh Paul, technical staffers Shaik Dawood Nassar and I Raghupathy. It stated that during the post-examination scanning at TRB, the accused digitally altered the scanned images and inflated the marks of select candidates against the final answer key.

They also arranged an extra set of 385 secondary OMR sheets bearing the names of the same select candidates. As a result, 262 undeserving candidates were fraudulently shown as qualified for the post of polytechnic lecturer. The selection process was eventually stalled and chargesheets were filed in 2021 and 2023.ED investigations revealed that the accused targeted willing candidates and collected ₹14 to ₹16 Lakh in cash.

The cash was further routed through mule accounts and proxy firms -Trust Enterprises, Wisdom Enterprises and Suriyam Enterprises - and the accounts of associates and family members, and subsequently converted into immovable properties and jewellery.During the recent raids, the agency has also seized ₹13.18 lakh in cash, frozen 56 bank accounts and two demat accounts of the accused. Documents related to 36 immovable properties with a market value of over ₹20 crore held in the names of the accused and their associates were also seized.