Special Court grants bail to Prime Accused Rakesh Gupta in APSC cash-for-job scam

Guwahati: The Special Court Tuesday granted bail to one of the prime accused in APSC cash-for-scam Rakesh Gupta.

Gupta had earlier surrendered before the Special Court on April 11, 2019 and later, on April 22, 2019, a special court had remanded Rakesh Gupta to police custody till April 26, 2019.

It may be mentioned that the cash-for-job case was registered by Dibrugarh police in the month of October 2016, when a job aspirant lodged a complaint that Nabakanta Patir, an engineer, has offered her a government job through APSC if she pays a bribe of Rs 10 lakh.

In late 2017, the Dibrugarh police had arrested (Case No. 2/2017) around 63 APSC qualified officials who were involved in the APSC cash for job scam from various locations of the state.

Furthermore, the nine accused in the infamous multi-crore Cash for Job scam got bail last year in the month of October.

The Gauhati High Court granted bail to the nine accused after they served for around 11 months in judicial custody. The persons who got bail are Dipak Khanikar, Kunal Das, Sudippta Goswami Bhattacharjee, Geetali Doley, Rumi Saikia, Sunayana Aidew, Sabira Imran, Dilip Kumar Kalita, and Badrul Islam Choudhury. However, Kunal Das would not be able to avail of the bail as he has been rearrested by Bhangagarh Police in another APSC case connected to the appointment of Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs).

The High Court gave them a number of conditions. For instance, they would not be able to leave the territorial limits of Guwahati city without written permission of the trial court and without informing the investigating agency. They would have to surrender their passports to the trial court.

Non-compliance of any of the eight conditions would entail "immediate cancellation of the bail granted", the order stated.

It may further be mentioned that the Gauhati High Court was likely to give a verdict on infamous multi-crore Cash for Job scam on May 15, 2019 on the CBI's plea for filing a case and carrying out investigation into former APSC (Assam Public Service Commission) chairman Rakesh Paul's assets allegedly disproportionate to his known sources of income. The High Court heard the CBI's plea and fixed May 15, 2019 as the next date for the hearing.

Recently, the CBI submitted a preliminary report on the assets of Rakesh Paul to the High Court. The report was following a directive issued by the High Court to the CBI for an inquiry into the property of the former APSC chief.

Also Read: Cash for Job Scam: Nine accused gets bail