Union Personnel Ministry officials confirmed to The Indian Express that the UP government’s brief on the case, indicated in a classified letter sent on February 4, has alleged that then PWD Minister Shivpal Yadav put political and administrative pressure during the police recruitment drive (2004-2006). And that he is allegedly involved in financial corruption in league with key bureaucrats.

The 944-page report was submitted to the state government on January 15. The probe team included Director General Police Vikram Singh and Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Pandey as members. Mayawati has already taken criminal and departmental action against 25 IPS officers, who were allegedly hand-picked by the previous regime for the job, and all 18,844 appointments were cancelled.

According to Ministry officials, the probe alleges:

* Recruitment of 18,884 constables was done even though there were no vacancies. In fact, a UP DGP letter, dated November 6, 2007, confirms there was a surfeit of 3269 constables in 2004.

* Former UP chief minister prima facie influenced the recruitment through five announcements — between January 2004 and June 2006 — that led to artificial creation of vacancies at the constable level. This was done despite objections of the Finance Department with the Home Department looking the other way. The report lists dates of such announcements and the corresponding recruitment. For example, recruitment was done in November 2004 after two announcements by the CM in January and October.

* Evidence to indicate that PWD Minister Shivpal Singh, along with other unnamed persons, allegedly indulged in financial corruption for recruitment. It names then DGP Yashpal Singh (who is currently head of Police Housing), former DGP (now Retd) Bua Singh and then CM’s special secretary Chandrama Prasad for prima facie abetment in the scandal.

* Three senior IAS officers, two of whom are serving as Secretaries to Government of India at present, and one is still with the UP State Government have been singled out for succumbing to political pressure. All three served in Mulayam’s Home Department.

* The probe has called for a detailed investigation of complaints relating to sexual exploitation of women candidates. This was confirmed by the Shailja Kant Mishra Committee that first investigated the recruitment scandal.

* Large-scale violations in recruitment procedures, including arbitrary marks and interviews. For example, as many as 3244 candidates were interviewed in one day at the Gorakhpur recruitment center with a total of 9,733 candidates called over three days from April 24, 2006.

* Similar evidence found in recruitment centres in Moradabad (740 and 1963 candidates in one day), Jhansi (842 candidates) and Ghaziabad (4224 candidates).