A senior IAS officer is in trouble for allegedly making a dummy candidate appear for him in an exam.

Earlier this week, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan ordered a departmental probe against Nashik municipal commissioner Bhaskarrao Digambarrao Sanap.

Serious charges have been levelled against Sanap, who is due to retire in June this year.

The matter dates back to June 2004, when Sanap, then the commissioner of Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation, took part in an examination of the Maharashtra State-Certificate in Information Technology (MS-CIT).

The state administration has made it compulsory for government officers to take this test.

Upon receiving complaints that a dummy appeared for Sanap, the government set up a probe committee under the higher and technical education department.

After the inquiry report submitted in November 2004 found discrepancies in the photo used on the examination hall ticket and also found that signatures on the hall ticket and the attendance sheet used for the exam did not match, it was decided to withhold Sanap's MS-CIT certificate. However, the administration was in two minds on whether to initiate action against the officer.

In his defence, Sanap informed the probe panel that he could cite other cases where the signatures on the hall ticket and attendance record did not match.

He also blamed the examination centre for the photograph mismatch. Further, he argued that taking the MS-CIT examination was not binding on him since he had already crossed 50 years of age. (The exam is optional for the above 50 category).

After being indecisive on action all this while, the government ordered a departmental probe two days ago.