Three Assam officials arrested in cash for job scam

Three Assam Civil Service (ACS) officers have been arrested in connection with the cash for jobs scam of the Assam Public Service Commission while investigations were on to unearth more such incidents, police said on Wednesday.

Police said that the three arrested on Tuesday night were identified as Bhaskar Jyoti Devasarma, Bhaskar Dutta and Amit Sarma, who had been working as Circle Officers in different districts. Police said that the three candidates has made it to the selection list by paying bribes to APSC Chairman Rakesh Paul.

"We have arrested the three officers after conducting forensic tests on their answer scripts. Two sets of answer sheets of these three officers were recovered from the Paul's office and residence in November last year," police said.

Assam Police had already arrested Paul and eight others, including two members of the Commission and an assistant controller of examinations for their involvement in the scam.

Police said that while these three candidates are arrested on Tuesday night, investigation is still on to bring to the fore more such faces who had indulged in the corruption.

Different organizations, particularly peasants body Krishak Mukti Sangram Samitee, who have been agitating since last several years against the rampant corruption in APSC under Paul, claimed that the arrests made so far were tip of the iceberg.

They further alleged that there were many others who had secured jobs with the help of influential people, including politicians, they demanded a through investigation into the scam to nail all the wrongdoers.

Last year, the Dibrugarh police had arrested assistant engineer, Nabakanta Patir, after he was caught red-handed accepting bribes of Rs 10 lakh from a woman dentist. He had approached her promising a government job through the APSC and demanded the money. But she instead tipped off police leading to his arrest.

Based on his confession, a PSO of an APSC member was subsequently arrested. During interrogation of the duo, it emerged that they were working as conduits in the sale of the plum jobs through APSC.

--IANS

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