Patna: Officers from the coveted Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in Bihar — described as the “steel frame” of the government machinery — have announced plans not to take verbal orders from any politicians, including the chief minister.

The move is meant to protest arrest of their senior colleague Sudhir Kumar in the test paper leak scandal.

Kumar was arrested from Hazaribag town in Jharkhand, along with four relatives including his brother, sister-in-law and his nephew.

Police said all of them were involved in the test paper leak scandal and they had very strong evidence of their alleged involvement in the scandal.

The examination for recruiting more than 17,000 junior staffers was recently conducted by the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC), of which Kumar was the chairman.

The IAS Association vowed to protest Kumar’s arrest after holding an emergency meeting which lasted for over two hours on Sunday.

“We have decided not to take verbal instructions from all politicians and higher offices including those coming from the Chief Minister Office (CMO) unless given in writing,” the Association’s secretary, Vivek Kumar Singh, told journalists at the end of the meeting.

The officers also decided not to accept the posts of chairman as well as controller of the BSSC, Bihar Joint Entrance Test, Technical Services Recruitment Board or any recruitment body to register their protest over the police action.

Around 125 IAS officials, several district magistrate and departmental secretaries attended the meeting to express their solidarity with the arrested colleague.

Later, the IAS officers marched on foot to the Raj Bhawan, the office of Bihar governor, and handed over a memorandum seeking immediate release of BSSC chairman Sudhir Kumar.

“The arrest of our BSSC chairman (Sudhir Kumar) is totally wrong. He was not absconding but was fully cooperating in the paper leak scandal. We won’t tolerate it anymore,” Association secretary Singh said, calling for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the entire scandal to bring out the truth.

He added there was a fear, anger and confusion among cadres “down the line”, and officers were finding it hard to discharge their duties after the incident.

During Sunday’s protest the IAS officers formed a human chain to express their solidarity with the arrested colleague, who was detained in the local Patna jail.

While a delegation of five IAS officers went inside the Raj Bhawan to meet the governor and hands over their memorandum, the rest of the officers stood outside in protest, holding their hands together.

This was the first time IAS officers had resorted to such a protest.

The BSSC is entrusted with the responsibility to conduct tests for the recruitment of lower rank staff in the state government secretariat.

The issue hit the headlines when the angry students appearing for clerical tests being conducted by the BSSC protested on the streets shortly after the question papers of the examination were leaked on WhatsApp, online chatting platform.

This prompted the state government to cancel the examination and order a thorough investigation into the case.

The SIT has so far arrested 32 suspects, including government officials, heads of coaching centres, teachers and brokers over the leak.

Police got a hint of scam when they raided the house of the BSSC secretary Parmeshwar Ram and seized many incriminating documents such as candidates’ admission cards, attendance registers for exam centres, informed sources said.

During the investigation, police unearthed alleged money transactions in the bank accounts of the BSSC secretary in lieu of helping the candidates.

Police said many candidates had sent their names with full exam details to the mobile number of the secretary who strangely didn’t delete their names.