New Delhi [India]: The Ministry of Railways has announced the cancellation of all pending departmental selections for Group C posts that were not finalized or approved before March 4, due to irregularities in the selection process.
The Railway Ministry issued a statement saying, “Due to several irregularities observed in recent departmental selections, it has been decided to revisit the selection framework. All pending selections, including LDCES and GDCES within Group ‘C’ that have not been finalized or approved by 04.03.2025, will be considered cancelled.” It added that no further selections will be initiated until further notice and that new instructions will be issued later to regulate the selection process.
This move follows the arrest of 26 Railway officials from the East Central Railway by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly leaking departmental exam papers. The CBI conducted searches at eight locations, recovering Rs. 1.17 crore in cash, which was reportedly collected from candidates for leaking the question papers. Handwritten and photocopied versions of the exam papers were seized, and they were found to match the original papers, the CBI confirmed.
The agency’s statement detailed that 17 departmental candidates, currently serving as Loco Pilots, had paid money for the leaked question papers and were caught with copies of the exam papers during the night of March 3-4, 2025. All of them were arrested.
CBI’s investigation revealed that the senior DEE (Ops) responsible for preparing the question paper had written the questions in English and handed them to a Loco Pilot, who translated them into Hindi. The Office Superintendent (Trg) then passed the translated papers to candidates through other railway employees.