CHENNAI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has seized copies of OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets of candidates in connection with different govt recruitment examinations, during searches carried out in places linked to the accused in the 2017 Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) scam, indicating manipulation of selecting candidates for various govt posts through different recruitment drives.ED sources said that they had seized OMR sheets of at least three different govt recruitment exams, without divulging more information.“The carbon copies of the OMR sheets were kept along with copies of various certificates belonging to candidates and other digital evidence,” said a note from ED pertaining to the searches. ED has seized Rs 13.18 lakh in cash and frozen 56 bank accounts and two demat accounts of the accused. The agency has seized documents related to 36 immovable properties with a market value of over Rs 20 crore held in the names of the accused and their associates.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 govt polytechnic colleges conducted by the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) in 2017.ED said that its investigation revealed the accused — V Subramanian, his associate Suresh Paul, technical staffers Shaik Dawood Nassar and I Raghupati — targeted willing candidates and collected Rs 14 to Rs 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.The original FIR alleged 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. The accused had 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.
