The CBI conducted searches at 15 locations in Chhattisgarh in connection with allegations of nepotism in the public service commission examination held in 2022, officials said on Wednesday.

"Ineligible" family members of politicians, PSC officials and public servants were recruited in lucrative government jobs, they said.

The searches took place at six locations in Raipur, three in Durg, two each in Mahasamund and Dhamtari and one each in Sarguja and Bilaspur at premises connected to those who benefited from the nepotism, they said. The CBI has named 16 such candidates who were appointed as deputy collectors, deputy superintendents of police and other lucrative positions, they said.

The agency searched premises of 15 of them on Wednesday while the residence on one candidate was searched earlier, they said.

Officials said Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission former chairperson Taman Singh Sonwani, ex-secretary Jeevan Kishore Dhruv and a controller of examination were booked in July for helping their sons, daughters, relatives and acquaintances score high in the merit list.

It is alleged that manipulations took place in the 2022 examination, the results of which were declared on May 11, 2023.

Five family members of Sonwani were beneficiaries in the recruitment exercise, officials said. These were his son Nitesh and daughter-in-law Nisha Kosale (deputy collectors), elder brother's son Sahil (deputy SP), daughter-in-law Deepa Adil (district excise officer) and sister's daughter Sunita Joshi (labour officer), they alleged.

"It has been further alleged that then Secretary (Dhruv) of Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission, Chhattisgarh, got his son Sumit selected to the post of deputy collector," a CBI spokesperson had said.

The complaint, now part of the CBI FIR, alleged that candidates making it in the merit from serial numbers 1-171 are allegedly related to government officials, politicians and influential persons.

It also lists deputy collectors, including Chhattisgarh governor's Secretary Amrit Kumar Xalxo's son Nikhil and daughter Neha, Bastar Naxal Operations DIG PL Dhruv's daughter Sakshi, Congress leader Sudhir Katiyar's daughter Bhumika Katiyar and son-in-law Sashank Goyal and Congress leader Rajendra Shukla's daughter Swarnim Shukla.

Besides, relatives of Congress leaders' aides, including Pragya Nayak, who was selected as deputy collector, and Prakhar Nayak, chosen as financial services officer, were also beneficiaries of the alleged scam, the complaint alleged.

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