The Dibrugarh Police, who are probing the cash-for-job scam in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), have arrested 19 more gazetted officials, including APS officer Pallavi Sharma, daughter of BJP MP RP Sharma, in Guwahati.
Police officials said the officials were arrested on Wednesday after they underwent a handwriting test at Assam Police Special Brach headquarters in Kahilipara here.
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The arrested officers are Utpal Bhuyan, Barnali Das, Susovan Das, Dhruvojyoti Chakraboty, Manzoor Ilahi Laskar, Moon Mazoomdar, Mustafa Ahmed Borbhuyan, Md Saibur Rahman Borbhuyan, Monika Teronpi, Ganesh Chandra Das, Srabanti Sen Gupta, Deepsikha Phukan, Leena Krishna Kakati, all ACS officers, Rhituraj Neog (superintendent of taxes), Nipon Kumar Pathak (inspector of taxes), Gulshan Daolagpu, Pallavi Sarmah, Bhargav Phukan, all Assam Police Service (junior grade) officers and Kamrup (metro) DTO Suranjita Hazarika.
Also read: APSC scam: 19 Assam officers including MP RP Sharma’s daughter summoned
The arrested officials-13 Assam Civil Service (ACS), three Assam Police Service (APS) officials and three allied service–were on July 16 summoned by the Dibrugarh Police to appear for handwriting tests after forensic examination of their answer sheets reportedly indicated several anomalies.
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Police sources said the arrested officials will be produced in the Special Judge’s Court here on Thursday. The arrested officers appeared for the Combined Competitive Examination-14 in 2014 and were given appointments in 2016.
Altogether 36 gazetted officials including high-profile candidates like Rajarshi Sen Deka son of former agriculture minister Nilamani Sen Deka, BJP member Sumitra Doley’s kin Geetali Doley and Sunayana Aidew, niece of BJP MP Rajen Gohain have been arrested so far in connection with the case.
The arrest of an assistant engineer, who was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a lady dentist, opened a can of worms in the APSC.
Suspended APSC chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul and eight others were arrested. A raid at Paul’s residence and APSC office in Guwahati yielded two sets of answer scripts of three ACS officers. The trio was arrested as their selection was found to be based on duplicate assessment.
Police later seized more than 1,000 copies of answer scripts from the APSC office for examination.