PAMIDIKALVA MADHUSUDHAN Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Petition, under Ss. 480 and 483 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short 'the BNSS') has been filed on behalf of the petitioner/accused No.2 to grant regular bail to the petitioner/accused No.2 in Crime No.56 of 2025 of Suryaraopet Police Station, Vijayawada city, registered for the offences punishable under Ss. 409, 420, 477A, 120B read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for brevity 'IPC').

(2.) The detailed case facts that are emanated from out of the investigation conducted by the Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission, Vijayawada (hereinafter referred to, as 'APPSC') are as follows:

(3.) It is further alleged that the petitioner/accused No.2 received Work Order vide Letter No.542/CDB/2021, dtd. 3/12/2021 for manual evaluation of Group-I Mains answer sheets with 24 conditions and the work order was issued without an MoU and in contravention of APPSC's own evaluation norms, which mandate evaluation by Professors in Government premises under Commission oversight; that out of 24 conditions, the Condition No.5 was that, the Agency shall make a list of Examiners supplied from the approved list of APPSC and shall maintain list of Examiners (Subject-wise) and scrutinizers, and the petitioner/accused No.2 was expected to facilitate evaluation by qualified examiners as per the work order. Instead, as per the directions of accused No.1, the petitioner/accused No.2 hired unqualified persons and as per the version of evaluators, they merely transferred marks into OMR sheets without performing evaluation and they do not have adequate experience, facilitated mark mapping, not real evaluation, violated the work order and the Orders of this Court, despite knowing the process was against established rules. The petitioner/accused No.2 received Rs.1,14,32,312.00 from APPSC without proper bills or back up documentation, out of which Rs.20.06 lakhs was paid to Haailand Resorts for unauthorized camp arrangements and Rs.10.3 lakhs was paid to hired unqualified workers and remaining amount was claimed for other expenses which did not contain bills. The petitioner/accused No.2 knowingly participated in facilitating the fraudulent evaluation by engaging unqualified persons, organizing and hosting the evaluation camp outside official premises, misrepresenting the process that was in direct violation of court orders, APPSC norms and public trust.