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Thiruvananthapuram: The crime branch on Wednesday arrested former Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) deputy secretary P Satheesh in connection with alleged irregularities in examination-related activities, marking the first arrest in the case.The arrest came ahead of the questioning of PSC chairman M R Baiju by the crime branch’s special investigation team (SIT) at its headquarters.Baiju appeared before the team, led by IG (crimes) Ajeetha Begum, around 2pm. The questioning ended around 8pm, while sources said he would be summoned again.Satheesh, who retired last year, was arrested from his residence in Kozhikode. He was in charge of the PSC examination wing and responsible for evaluating the controversial examination.The crime branch had recently named Satheesh and R Hari, additional secretary in the PSC examination wing, as accused in the case. The govt subsequently suspended Hari and withheld Satheesh’s retirement benefits.The Kerala High Court had recently criticised the delay in taking action against those named in the case. It questioned why no concrete action had been taken despite the absence of any court directive to impede the investigation, and raised suspicions of a possible understanding between the parties involved.Both accused reportedly maintained that the discrepancy stemmed from a technical error rather than deliberate fraud. However, the crime branch is understood to have gathered evidence pointing to their specific roles in the irregularities.
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