The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Wednesday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against 10 Tribhuvan University officials for altering the scores of several candidates who had appeared in the tests conducted to fill vacancies at the university.

The anti-graft agency has implicated Chairman of the Tribhuvan University Service Commission Chaitanya Prasad Sharma, member Chintamani Pokharel, administrative chief of the commission office Parshuram Koirala, chief office assistant Bachchuram Pandey, staff member Indira Tiwari, professors Teknath Dhakal and Govinda Dhakal, and joint professors Rajeshwor Neupane, Tara Prakash Poudel and Ram Bahadur Chhetri in the case.

They have been accused of abusing their positions to appoint the relatives of the university officials to the posts of section officer, account officer, assistant legal adviser, chief accounts officer, chief office assistant and office assistant.

The university had announced vacancies on March 11, 2017.

The accused university officials have been charged under Section 13 of the Corruption Prevention Act, under which they could face imprisonment from three months to one year and a fine of Rs5000-Rs10,000 upon conviction.

The CIAA has also prescribed additional three years’ jail sentence to Chaitanya Prasad Sharma, Chintamani Pokharel, Parshuram Koirala, Teknath Dhakal and Govinda Dhakal under Section 24 of the Corruption Prevention Act.

According to CIAA Spokesperson Pradeep Kumar Koirala, an investigation was launched into the alleged irregularities after the agency received several complaints concerning score manipulation.

During its investigation, the anti-corruption body identified anomalies in 33 answer sheets.

In the test taken for 24 section officer posts, the CIAA found that the scores of six examinees were altered. One of the examinees was deliberately failed despite passing the test. Investigation revealed that their scores were altered by professor duo Govinda Dhakal and Teknath Dhakal.

In the test conducted for 24 account officer posts, the scores of seven examinees were manipulated. Their scores were changed by Rajeshwor Neupane and Teknath Dhakal.

In the test conducted for a single job opening of assistant legal advisor, the anti-graft agency discovered that Tara Prakash Poudel had manipulated the scores of three examinees. One of the examinees was given an additional score of 15 in the second paper to raise his rank to first from fifth. The scores of the candidates who had come first and second were lowered to put them in second and fourth positions.

The university had conducted test for 24 chief account assistant posts. Again, the scores of six examinees were altered; three of them were deliberately failed.

Their answer sheets were checked by Rajeshwor Neupane and Tek Nath Dhakal, according to the CIAA.

In the test for 12 chief office assistant posts, investigation found that Ram Bahadur Pandey and Teknath Dhakal tampered the scores of 11 examinees.

The scores of two examinees sitting in the test for 14 office assistant posts at the university were also altered. The answer sheets were checked by Teknath Dhakal.

The CIAA also found that the original scores were not visible in many cases. Some answer sheets had different scores in the inside and outside pages.

As per clause 19 of internal working procedure of TU Service Commission, 33 percent of answer sheets with wrong markings should be audited. However, only few answer sheets were approved for auditing, the CIAA investigation found.

The working procedure also bars involvement of the university officials in the exams that their relatives are appearing in, but the regulation was ignored.

The investigation also found that TU Service Commission Chairman Chaitanya Prasad Sharma and member Chintamani Pokharel had interviewed the examinees without the presence of representatives from the Public Service Commision.