APSC cash-for-job scam: Two arrested ASPs admit fraud

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The noose has tightened around the two ASPs arrested for adopting illegal and unfair means in the Combined Competitive Examinations (CCE)-2013, after an evidence was found against them during investigation into the case and they admitted to insertion of fake answer scripts during primary interrogation.

It should be mentioned here that the accused Aishwarya Jibon Baruah and Shahjahan Sarkar were arrested at 11.30 PM on November 22 in connection with Dibrugarh PS Case no. 936/2016 under Sections 7/13 (1) (a)(b)(d)(2) P.C Act, read with Section 120 (B)/420 IPC and added Section 463/468/471/477(A)/201 IPC. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed for the purpose is anticipating that more wrong-doers will fall into their net soon.

During investigation, sufficient evidence has been found against the arrested accused persons. During primary interrogation, the accused persons accepted that they had used illegal means to increase their marks in CCE-2013 by insertion of fake answer sheets in the original answer sheets. This fact was corroborated by expert opinion reports collected vide FSL report no. DFS.58/2017/358 dated December 30, 2017 in connection with the instant case, which clearly revealed that duplicate sheets were inserted in the answer script of Political Science paper-I, Code No. 240, Book No. 1304325 of Aishwarya Jibon Baruah, sources said.

The expert opinion report also clearly revealed that the first pages of Shahjahan Sarkar’s answer scripts of General English Code no. 1038 Book no. 1301349, General Studies Code no. 933 Book no. 1315744, Law Paper-I Code no.90 Book no. 1306918, Law Paper-II Code no.90 Book no. 1307141, Sociology Paper-1 Code no. 419 Book no. 1308014, Sociology Paper-II Code no. 414 Book no. 1308517 are genuine, but duplicate sheets were inserted into the said answer scripts. It was also established that the arrested accused persons obtained their jobs in the Assam government by adopting unlawful means in collusion with arrested accused person Rakesh Kumar Paul and other officials.

Considering the seriousness of the offence, the custodial interrogations of the accused persons was said to be absolutely essential for thorough interrogation to get corroborative and material evidence and subsequently, to bring these within the ambit of legal procedure. As the FSL clearly revealed that the accused arrested persons are benefited with the marks awarded in the fake answer sheets, the custodial interrogation of the accused persons is necessary to find out the nexus of the officials of APSC, as to how the insertion of fake pages could be done illegally in their main answer scripts in the said examination conducted by the APSC, according to sources.

The investigation also seeks to find out the modus operandi of the whole racket of illegal appointments run by the arrested accused Rakesh Kumar Paul and his associates in the Combined Competitive Examination conducted by the Assam Public Service Commission. Police custody was sought for taking follow up action to unearth the whole scam of illegal recruitment for their wrongful gain and to find their money trail with the officials of APSC, sources said.

While seeking police custody, it was also prayed that the accused should not be released on bail as it will hamper the investigation of the case as they have the means to ‘hamper and tamper investigation of the instant case,’ the sources added.

A total of 37 ACS and allied service officers selected through the CCE-2013 were indicted in the report by the Justice (retd.) Biplab Sharma Judicial Inquiry Commission.

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