Assam: Chairman of Public Service Commission arrested over corruption charges
Rakesh K Paul, chairman of Assam’s Public Service Commission, was arrested for alleged corruption and malpractice in recruitment for state government jobs.
The police arrested the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) chairman, Rakesh K Paul, for alleged corruption and malpractices in recruitment for state government jobs, on Friday.
Police were led to Paul through Nabakanta Patir, an assistant engineer of eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh Development Authority, who was caught accepting a bribe from a private dental surgeon on October 28.
Police said the surgeon had paid Patir Rs 10 lakh for one of the 60 posts of dental surgeon under the 2016 APSC recruitment examination.
“We arrested Paul on the basis of evidence collected over the past week,” said Gautam Borah, Dibrugarh superintendent of police.
The 59-year-old, who is due for retirement in November 2019, was made a member of the APSC in 2008 before being elevated as chairman in December 2013.
A Right to Information application in June revealed that the former Tarun Gogoi government had tweaked the rules to elevate Paul as head of APSC. A case was filed in the Gauhati high court, which in October ordered the CBI to investigate the official’s assets.
