APSC cash-for-job scam: Police grill 25 government officials

According to the reports, the son of a former Congress minister, a relative of a Union minister are among the officials, who were grilled by the investigating team.

The 25 officials including Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS), who were declared successful in the 2013 APSC examination and appointed by the state government in 2015 were grilled by the Dibrugarh police team led by ASP Surajit Singh Panesar and Subhasish Baruah for several hours.

Former Congress minister Nilamoni Sen Deka’s son ACS officer Rajarshi Sen Deka and Union minister Rajen Gohain’s relative Sunayana Aideu (Superintendent of Taxes) were also grilled in connection with the cash-for-job scam with other officials.

ASP Surajit Singh Panesar said that, earlier police had summoned to 26 officials to appear before the investigating team, but an official was absent on Friday.

The investigating team had collected 5-page handwriting samples from all 25 officials and also asked them to write a short note in the subject of Cultural Heritage of Assam.

A top police official said that, the investigating team also tested of general knowledge and English language.

“All handwriting samples will be sent to forensic laboratory. If any mismatch found in forensic report, further steps will being taken following court direction,” the top police official said.

Dibrugarh police had recently seized 1265 answer scripts of the APSC examination held in 2013 and 2015 from the strong room in the commission office.

Police had already arrested three ACS officials named Bhaskarjyoti Dev Sharma, Bhaskar Dutta and Amit Sharma in connection with the scam.

Apart from these officials, police had also arrested former chairman of APSC Rakesh Paul, his two associate members Samedur Rahman, Basanta Doley, Pabitra Koiborta, Nabakanta Patir.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)