Two Assam Civil Service officers arrested by CMSVC

VILLAGE HEADMEN APPOINTMENT SCAM

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Two Assam Civil Service (ACS) officers were arrested by the Chief Minister's Special Vigilance Cell (CMSVC) on Saturday in connection with the illegal appointment of village headmen (Gaon Burah) in South Salmara-Mankachar District in 2017-18.

The two government officials - Bikram Aditya Bora who is posted as deputy secretary, BTC and AK Illias N Ahmed who is serving as deputy secretary in Assam Secretariat - were arrested by the Chief Minister's Special Vigilance Cell at the end of an intensive grilling which began on Friday night. Significantly, Bikram Aditya Bora was serving as the circle officer of Mankachar while AK Illias N Ahmed was the circle officer of South Salmara when the village headmen appointment scam took place. Both the accused officials were presented before the court of the special judge, Guwahati which remanded them to five days of police custody. The arrest of the two officials comes days after the CMSVC filed a charge sheet against the former additional deputy commissioner of South Salmara-Mankachar Saibar Rahman in connection with the illegal village headmen appointment case. Earlier Rahman was arrested in connection with a disproportionate income case.

On September 30, 2021, the CMSVC had filed a case (no 05/2021) against Saibar Rahman under sections 120B/420/468/471 of the IPC R/W Sec 13(1)(a) /13(2) PC (Amendment) Act, 2018 in connection with the illegal appointment case of 78 Gaon Burahs (village headmen) in South-Salmara Mankachar district during 2017-18. He was then serving as the Additional Deputy Commissioner. The charge sheet filed by CMSVC mentioned that Saibar Rahman himself admitted that he had offered the job of village headman to some applicants in lieu of a huge amount of cash from each candidate while he was posted as the ADC.Recently, the CMSVC had interrogated the then deputy commissioner of South Salmara-Mankachar Atika Sultana in connection with the case. She is likely to be interrogated further in the days ahead.

Sultana was the Chairman of the Gaon Burahs appointment committee when she was serving as the deputy commissioner of South Salmara-Mankachar district from 2017 to 2020 while Saibar Rahman was the member secretary. Bikram Aditya Bora and AK Illias N Ahmed who were arrested on Saturday were both members of the committee.

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