The investigation has led to the arrest of 20 people so far, including the director of the Lucknow-based company TDPL, which had conducted as many as 12 examinations for the JPSC since 2025. Since Jharkhand Police has already cracked the case, there was no justification for an inquiry by a central agency, JMM has argued.
The government has also pointed out that the Jharkhand High Court found no reason to hand over the investigation into the Combined Graduate Level (CGL) examination conducted by the SSC. The Supreme Court, it claimed, allowed the appointments to be made, and the appointees have already joined at their places of posting.
The BJP’s demand for a CBI inquiry, JMM holds, is politically motivated and designed to harass the state government. Chief minister Hemant Soren, JMM leaders point out, was himself hounded by central agencies on what they described as false charges and forced to resign until the high court dismissed the ED’s case against him.
While fears of a witch hunt and a partisan investigation are real, the fact remains that investigations by both the CID and the CBI may well reveal whether family members and relatives of people in government and the ruling party benefited disproportionately, raising suspicions of favouritism.
“While relatives of bureaucrats, police officers and politicians of all parties seem to have been appointed, the fear is that the CBI and the media would go after the government and spare the BJP,” said a senior journalist in Ranchi on condition of anonymity.
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