Is a nephew ‘family’ or a ‘relative’? This distinction is critical to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe into the alleged Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC) scam. 

In its chargesheet submitted before a Raipur court on January 16, the agency has said that former CGSPC chairman Taman Singh Sonwani had replaced the word ‘relative’ with ‘family’ in the notification of the CGPSC examination held in 2021. This, the agency said, was done such that Mr. Sonwani remained involved in the examination process to allegedly influence the selection of his nephews.

Mr. Sonwani and his former colleagues in the CGPSC are accused of misusing their positions to manipulate the selection process. The case lists him and six others, including two of his nephews who got selected, as accused. All of them are in judicial custody. 

The former chairman is accused of providing the CGPSC preliminary and mains exam question papers to his nephews Nitesh and Sahil who were selected as deputy collector, and deputy superintendent of police respectively. They are accused of sharing the question papers with other candidates in exchange of money routed through Gramin Vikas Samiti, a registered society with Mr. Soniwani’s wife Padmini Singh Sonwani as its chairperson. 

“As it is clearly mentioned in Rule of Procedure of CGPSC that close relative/family member of Chairman and member of CGPSC appearing for examination, in that case, the said Chairman and Members will keep themselves away from the process of examination conducted by CGPSC. However, in this case Shri Taman Singh Sonwani by replacing word Relative with word Family and also modifying definition of Family, he remained in the process of examination and ensured selection of his nephew Shri Nitesh (A-5) to the post of Dy Collector and Shri Sahil (A-6) to the post of Dy. SP,” the CBI chargesheet read.

Faisal Rizvi, the advocate representing Mr. Sonwani, said the allegations against his client were based on assumption. “Earlier, at the time of remand, they [prosecuting agency] had said that 18 candidates had taken up the exam somewhere else and had demanded the specimen of the handwriting, and now they are saying the paper was leaked,” Mr. Rizvi said.