Guwahati: Assam police have arrested one more government officer and two brokers including a district level BJP leader in connection with the cash-for-job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).
According to the reports, the Dibrugarh police has arrested an officer of Assam Police Service (APS) identified as Kavita Das, who is presently served as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (SP) in 19th IRBn in connection with the infamous scam.
On July 18, the Dibrugarh police had arrested the daughter of Assam’s BJP MP RP Sharma and 18 other government officers in connection with the scam.
Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Dibrugarh district Surajeet Singh Panesar said that, the investigating team had arrested the DSP from Duliajan area.
On the other hand, police had arrested two brokers last night.
A team of Dibrugarh police had arrested one broker from Guwahati and another from Mangaldoi area in Darrang district.
A top official of Assam police said that, Sailen Sarma Baruah, a close aide of sacked chairman of APSC Rakesh Paul was arrested from Mangaldoi area and he is a lawyer and also a BJP leader of Darrang district.
On the other hand, another arrested broker Surajit Choudhury is a builder and also the husband of government officer Pallavi Sarma Choudhury, who was arrested earlier in connection with the scam.
Assam police have so far arrested 55 government officers including Pallavi Sharma, daughter of BJP MP RP Sharma, Rajarshi Sen Deka, son of former Assam minister Nilamoni Sen Deka.
On July 18, the Dibrugarh police had arrested 13 ACS officer, 3 APS officers and one District Transport Officer (DTO), one Tax Superintendent and one Tax Inspector in connection with the scam.
The arrested officers are, Suranjita Hazarika (DTO), Utpal Bhuyan (ACS), Barnali Das (ACS), Susovan Das (ACS), Dhruvojyoti Chakraborty (ACS), Manzoor Ilahi Laskar (ACS), Moon Mazoomdar (ACS), Mustafa Ahmed Borbhuyan (ACS), Saibur Rahman Borbhuyan (ACS), Monika Teronpi (ACS), Ganesh Chandra Das (ACS), Srabanti Sen Gupta (ACS), Deepsikha Phukan (ACS), Leena Krishna Kakati (ACS), Gulshan Daolagpu (APS), Pallavi Sharma (APS), Bhargav Phukan (APS), Rituraj Neog (Tax Superintendent ) and Nipon Kumar Pathak (Tax Inspector) and they have been accused of obtaining the job under APSC through unfair means.
On June 20, Assam government had sacked 13 Assam Civil Service (ACS) officers from their services with immediate effect, who were arrested in connection with the cash-for-job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).
The officers, who have been sacked by the Assam government are – Dipak Khanikar, Dwithun Borgoyary, Debajit Bora, Pallabi Sarma Choudhury, Anirudhya Roy, Himangshu Choudhury, Kunal Das, Kamal Debnath, Geetali
Doley, Badrul Islam Choudhury, Rajarshi Sen Deka, Rumi Saikia and Nishamoni
Deka.
Earlier, Assam government had suspended 24 officers of Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and other allied services and sacked 3 other ACS officers, who were arrested by the Dibrugarh police in connection with the cash-for-job scam.
The entire scam has been came to light after, Dibrugarh police had 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 in 2016.
Following the incident, Dibrugarh police had registered a case at Dibrugarh police station (case no 936/16) and arrested then chairman of APSC Rakesh Paul from Guwahati and later arrested few more persons 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.
The investigating team had also grilled several officers of Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and other allied services for their alleged involvement with the scam.
On August 31 last year, the Gauhati High Court had granted bail to 10 accused persons including three Assam Civil Service (ACS) officials, who were arrested in connection with the cash-for-job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).
(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)
