Assam govt suspends 10 ACS officers arrested in connection with cash-for-job scam
Guwahati, Nov 21 (IBNS): The Assam government has suspended 10 of the 23 officers arrested in connection with the cash-for-job scam in Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), officials said on Tuesday.
The arrested officers of Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and other allied services were accused of paying large sums of money to secure jobs following the competitive examination conducted by the APSC.
According to reports, the personnel department of the state government had suspended the 10 officers by issuing a notification.
"The suspended 10 officers belong to the Assam Civil Service and they were declared successful in the 2013 competitive examination and appointed in 2015," a top official of personnel department said.
The suspended officers are Debojit Bora, Dipak Khanikar, Kunal Das, Daithun Borgoyari, Anirudha Roy, Pallavi Sarma Choudhury, Himangshu Choudhury, Kamal Debnath, Rajarshi Sen Deka, Badarul Islam Choudhury.
Rajarshi Sen Deka is son of former Assam Congress minister Nilamoni Sen Deka.
The top official said that the other accused, including those from ACS, APS and other allied services, are likely to be suspended soon.
Earlier, the state government had dismissed from service three ACS officers, who were arrested in connection with the scandal.
While 23 officers were arrested or surrendered themselves in the court in the past two weeks, two others are absconding; the absconding officers have been identified as ACS officer Nishamoni Deka and APS officer Rakesh Gupta.
On November 20, Rumi Saikia, assistant commissioner and an ACS officer, who was reportedly absconding, had surrendered before the special court in Guwahati.
On the other hand, Assam police is planning to question at least 38 more officials in connection with the scandal.
A top police official said that the investigating team had accessed the forensic report of several answer scripts, which were earlier seized from the APSC office in Guwahai.
“We have already identified a few more officials after receiving the forensic report and will likely ask them to appear before the investigating team,” the top police official said.
A top official of Assam police said that, apart from it, police has also identified at least 12 middlemen for their involvement in the cash-for-job scam.
Sacked chairman of APSC, Rakesh Paul’s brother Rajib Paul, Sudip Das, Mrigen Saikia and Mofidul Islam are among the middlemen, who are presently absconding.
The entire scam came to light after, Dibrugarh police arrested an engineer named Naba Kanta Patir from Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district -- after they caught him red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a lady doctor to provide a secured government job -- on October 27 last year.
Following the incident, Dibrugarh police registered a case and arrested the then chairman of APSC Rakesh Paul from Guwahati; they later arrested a few more people, including former members of APSC -- Samedur Rahman, Basanta Doley, Pabitra Kaiborta, Musharaf Hussain, Mabud Ali Choudhury, three ACS officers Bhaskarjyoti Dev Sharma, Bhaskar Dutta and Amit Sharma.
On August 31 last, the Gauhati High Court had granted bail to 10 accused, including three Assam Civil Service (ACS) officials, who were arrested in connection with the cash-for-job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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