New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS): In yet another trouble for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister from 2007 to 2012, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a preliminary enquiry involving unknown officials of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) and others for nepotism, alleged irregularities and misconduct in the 2010 examination of 250 posts of additional private secretary (APS).
Agency sources said the PE was registered against unknown officials and private persons on February 14 on the request of the Uttar Pradesh government on September 12, 2018 over appointment of 250 additional private secretaries in the state secretariat.
The Centre had issued an order in the matter in January this year.
A source said that in the 2010 examination conducted by the UPPSC, "unknown officials" showed undue favours to candidates which resulted in selection of non-deserving candidates who did not fulfil the eligibility criteria.
"Some of the selected candidates were close relatives of the then UPPSC officials," the source added.
Sources said that the advertisement of the 250 posts was published in 2010 when Mayawati was the Chief Minister of the state but the appointment process was completed on October 3, 2017.
The source said examinations for the 250 APS posts were held in three phases and the results were declared in two parts. But 237 candidates were made to join the posts on October 3, 2017, when the BJP government came to power in the state.
Last year in May, the CBI had sought a clarification from the UPPSC, which said such a request was "out of the purview of the probe." The UPPSC thus did not supply the required documents.
The CBI then sent a letter to the UP government seeking permission to probe the case.
The agency's action comes almost three weeks after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided seven places in Uttar Pradesh in the Rs 1,400 crore memorial scam during Mayawati's tenure.
In January this year, CBI registered a case and raided officers and ministers of former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's cabinet in illegal sand mining scam in the state.