Assam cash-for-job scam: State government suspends ACS officer

According to the reports, the state government suspended ACS officer Avisika Baruah, who served as circle officer in Nazira in Sivsagar district.

The government order said that Avisika Baruah has become approver in the case and her statement has been recorded.

“In her statement Avisika Baruah has made disclosure of her inculpatory and exculpatory acts. This prima facie shows her involvement in a criminal conspiracy,” said in the government order.

Earlier, the Assam government had suspended 24 officers of Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and other allied services and sacked 3 other ACS officers, who were arrested by the Dibrugarh police in connection with the cash-for-job scam.

On Feb 7 last, Dibrugarh police grilled nine more government officials of Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and other allied service in connection with the scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) in Guwahati.

The investigating team of Dibrugarh Police has interrogated the government officers at Assam Police Special Branch (SB) headquarter at Kahilipara in Guwahati for several hours.

All nine government officers were asked to write up paragraphs in different subjects and the investigating team had taken signature samples of the officers.

The government officials who appeared before the investigating team are – Avisikha Baruah (ACS), Rituraj Gogoi (ACS), Joydev Mahanta (ACS), Kaushik Kalita (APS), Sanjan Phukan (ACS), Debabrata Dey (APS), Satyajit Sarkar (Assistant Employment Officer) and Abhishek Borbora (Inspector of Excise).

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Dibrugarh district Surajit Sing Panesar said that, all hand writing and signature samples will be sent to the forensic laboratory.

“We will wait for the forensic report. If any found guilty in the report, then we will take act as per law,” the Assam cop said.

The investigating team has accessed the forensic report of several answer scripts, which were earlier seized from the APSC office in Guwahati.

“We have already identified few more officials after receiving the forensic report and would likely to be asked them to appear before the investigating team,” the top police official said.

The top official of Assam police said that, apart from it, police have also identified at least 12 middlemen for their involvement in the cash-for-job scam.

Sacked chairman of APSC Rakesh Paul’s brother Rajib Paul, Sudip Das, Mrigen Saikia and Mofidul Islam are among the middlemen, who are presently absconding.

The entire scam came to light after, Dibrugarh police had arrested an engineer  named Naba Kanta Patir from Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district as they caught him red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a lady doctor to provide a secured government job on October 27 in 2016.

Following the incident, Dibrugarh police had registered a case and arrested then chairman of APSC Rakesh Paul from Guwahati and later arrested few more persons including former members of APSC Samedur Rahman, Basanta Doley, Pabitra Kaiborta, Musharaf Hussain, Mabud Ali Choudhury, three ACS officers Bhaskarjyoti Dev Sharma, Bhaskar Dutta and Amit Sharma.

On August 31 last year, the Gauhati High Court had granted bail to 10 accused persons including three Assam Civil Service (ACS) officials, who were arrested in connection with the cash-for-job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)